The month of September was the final month of our touring ministry.  As we mentioned in the last newsletter, we have retired from the touring ministry, but we'll always be in ministry somehow, somewhere.  We will include those activities in the MINISTRY-WISE section towards the end of this newsletter.  We don't know where this all will take us, but God does, and we trust Him to lead us and we trust we'll follow in His perfect plan for our lives.

Our final concert of the touring season was in September in Louisburg, KS with our dear friends there at Louisburg Baptist Temple.  On Saturday night they had a fish fry and antique car show, then Frankie was the main attraction.  The weather cooperated perfectly and it was a beautiful night.  Several of Frankie's cousins came from the Kansas City area, one of whom he had not seen in several decades.  One of the ladies of the church gave us a huge "goodie" basket, another friend gave us several books, but the prize of the whole evening was a collage of events from our lives and ministry assembled together by our dear friend, Jack Smith, and framed in a 16 x 20 frame.  We will treasure that forever.  Thank you, Jack.

Below are some pictures from that evening, from several of our friends and family.  My thanks again to son Brian for assisting me in inserting these pictures.

One of Frankie's latest experiences was the fact that he found a guitarist from his very first band.  That was obviously tremendously exciting for him.  And whereas Frankie has often shared in his testimony that he auditioned for that band with the song, Unchained Melody, he said he had his doubts that perhaps he had remembered wrong.  But not so, said the guitar player, who was 18 at the time.  He definitely remembers Frankie singing that song.  Is that cool, or what?

Frankie has a new job - he is the booking agent for Haskell and JoLee Cooley, who are southern gospel music evangelists.  We have mentioned Haskell on different occasions as producing our last two or three CDs, singing on them with us, and using some of his accompaniment tracks.  But now we'd like to let you know that they have been in ministry for 29 years, and Frankie can get them booked into your church.

They are both anointed of God and very talented.  Haskell is a fantastic pianist, having accompanied the famous Cathedral Quartet for five years.  His piano arrangements are fabulous, and will thrill you.  Together with his wife JoLee they write all the music they sing, and JoLee plays bass guitar as accompaniment.  The lyrics to their music are deep and thought-provoking, and some are even fun!  Combine all that with a southern gospel base, and you have the makings of a wonderful event with the Cooleys.  They, too, will come for a love offering, and they drive their own motorhome for distances.  Send Frankie an e-mail and consider having this precious couple for "A Time Of Refreshing," as their theme declares.

We both dealt a lot this past month with the reasons we had to stop touring - our bad backs.  Frankie's has progressed very well, and he does fine when he doesn't "lift anything heavier than his underwear" (instructions from his chiropractor!)  He's actually able to lift small things, although when we come home from a shopping trip, it's "one bag at a time" into the house, back out to the car, "one bag at a time", etc.  Sure is time consuming (can't you see it?), but we have to do what we have to do.  We even ask the clerks to bag each sack lightly so we older people can carry it!  They never mind responding to our whimsy.  I wouldn't think we're the only old people who have made such a request!

Other things you don't think about - we can't even make our own bed.  The mattress is too big for either of us to lift even the big corners, so we eventually had to invite our daughter over so she could take the sheets off, we'd wash them while she was here, then she made our bed for us!  (Sneaky way to get our daughter over here!)  Now if someone will just come over and vacuum..... :)

Back-wise, I (Phyllis) am still having a rough time with lots of pain, but I am finally beginning to have more pain-free time now than time with pain, and more frequently, and that is HUGE for me.  Because my situation is so "roller-coastery" (don't you just love that word?), we have been unable to make any kinds of plans, because when we did, we often had to cancel because of my condition, and that has been frustrating to all concerned.  God continues to reassure me that I am healing, and as Frankie said recently, when you look back to where you were and where you are now, we can certainly see signs of healing.  Those signs were real slow in appearing until just these past few days when I've seen marked changes.  I do still have the sensitivity issues, but there have been times I have felt those have lessened some too.  My white shorts are still the "outfit of choice" but I have had to make some adjustments on occasion when those white shorts just weren't appropriate!

And to those of you who have been so faithful in praying for our back situations, we can not thank you enough.  You have truly sustained us, and I think have moved us along in our healing, more than probably even we know.  I have recently had what I had hoped would have been a turnaround, but it seems it was just a lengthy reprieve, for which even I am so thankful, but with the spinal decompression I'm getting, we feel we are headed in the right direction.  Recently a local pastor and members of his church prayed for me and anointed me with oil, and that transpired just shortly before my "lengthy reprieve" so perhaps the two were related?  I'd like to think so.  James 5:14 and 15 do work.

Our youngest daughter got married recently and they are expecting grandchild #15.  How proud we are of all of them.

 Valens Vignettes -   

 I was teaching the children at a concert a song that included clapping at one point, and they just weren't clapping.  I couldn't understand children not clapping.  However, after the concert, we were told that the church had split over clapping (?!?!?), and we got the non-clappers!

While having breakfast at a hotel before our morning concert, Frankie noticed that some women seemed to eyeing him.  He was dressed rather fancy, so just thought that was the cause.  However, when we arrived at the church and sat down on the front pew to wait for the service to start, I looked over at him, and he had a wonderful case of "gaposis!" No wonder the girls were staring!

After our concert, a family had invited us to stay with them for the night, so we followed them home.  Upon arriving, they told us they had to go to a class reunion and they left us - to babysit their three children!

One church had scheduled us for a concert, but the night before the concert they canceled the concert (we weren't sure why), but they paid us $500 NOT to sing!