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It Starts With A Donkey And A Buffalo

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This week it’s Part 3 of my 4-part series on my recent trip to visit family in the Wichita Falls Texas area. That would make this the penultimate edition of this series. (I’ve always liked that word – penultimate.)

It’s the final Saturday morning of September, and we need to check on Reno – our approximate 25-year-old family donkey. He lives in a farm in Clay County about 500 feet away from the Wichita County line. He gets checked on every day. He’s fed (a pile of hay and a carrot), given fresh water, and sometimes even cleaned up a bit. (I actually Goggled “do donkeys like carrots”, and Google’s AI confirmed that “donkeys generally love carrots as a healthy treat”. I can confirm that Reno does indeed love carrots.

After our visit with the donkey we checked-in with the buffalo – as in White Buffalo Coffee Bar. It’s a Veteran-owned franchise with 18 locations in Oklahoma and Texas. We went to the one near Sheppard AFB. I got a hot Pumpkin Spice Latte and a breakfast croissant sandwich. Both were pretty good. My cousin liked her drink and food too. I have a feeling that we’ll be back there on my next visit – especially considering its proximity to the airport (6 minutes away).

Next stop – a wonderful roadside memorial off I-44 northbound – north of Wichita Falls and about 7 miles south of the Oklahoma State Line. It features a 77-foot Cross, 3 smaller crosses, and numerous plaques along a circular sidewalk with Scripture detailing the final days of the life of Christ Jesus. It was constructed from 2023 to 2025. KMOC 89.5 – a local Christian radio station – was behind the memorial.

Next stop – a classic car show at a church. We actually stumbled across this one, and this is a recurring theme on my visits to Wichita Falls. We go on a road-trip (either locally or regionally), and we stumble across a place or an event that we weren’t expecting on our way to another place or event. This was a fun event. I love classic car shows and museums. I love guessing the year each car is from before I check out its display card. I love looking inside the cars – especially at their dashboards.

We also checked out a small portion of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area (off Loop 11).

Later that same day (and the start of my final night) – 5 of us went out to dinner at a place called Firefly. The fellowship with family was wonderful, and the food portions were MASSIVE. I would’ve taken a picture of my dinner plate upon receiving it, but I didn’t want to waste any time. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to eat everything on my plate within an hour. (And I actually couldn’t finish it all.)

Next #TravelThursday starts with dinner leftovers for an early lunch the next day, and it’s my trek through the airports and inflight back home to Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 452

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday October 12TH 2025 – the 452ND week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 11 Can’t Steal My Joy
[2ND week @ # 1]
Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
2 3 18 Breakdown Andrew Ripp
3 2 17 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
4 8 6 Still Crowder
5 4 6 I’ve Just Seen Too Much Big Daddy Weave
6 6 21 God Did It Micah Tyler
7 7 23 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
8 9 4 Get Behind Me Emerson Day
9 10 2 Mighty Name Of Jesus Hope Darst
10 1 Dusty Bibles Josiah Queen

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise The Lord” – Micah Tyler
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “What If” – Matthew West
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Fear No More” – Building 429
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “The Gospel” – Ryan Stevenson

CAN’T STEAL MY JOY – Josiah Queen’s 3RD hit on my chart is his 1ST # 1 smash, as his collaboration with Brandon Lake spends its 2ND week at the pinnacle. (Brandon is credited with his 2ND # 1 smash.) It’s from Josiah’s 2ND studio album – “Mt. Zion” – which was released a little over 7 weeks ago. His follow-up single – “Dusty Bibles” – enters my chart this week at # 10.

ONE-HIT WONDER – Last week Lincoln Brewster was featured with his one hit that was a # 1 smash for 4 weeks and the # 8 hit of 2018 – “No One Like Our God”. This week it’s another man with one hit that was a # 1 smash, and in fact it was the # 1 smash right before the aforementioned. Matt Redman spent 6 weeks at the top of my chart with his duet with Tasha Cobbs Leonard – “Gracefully Broken”. It’s a song that I sang many times with the Praise & Worship band of my previous home church. It too was one of the biggest hits of 2018. It was the # 6 hit of the entire year.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 451

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday October 05TH 2025 – the 451ST week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 5 10 Can’t Steal My Joy
[1ST week @ # 1]
Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
2 2 16 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
3 1 17 Breakdown Andrew Ripp
4 3 5 I’ve Just Seen Too Much Big Daddy Weave
5 4 9 Preach Ryan Stevenson Ft. Matt Hammitt
6 6 20 God Did It Micah Tyler
7 7 22 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
8 8 5 Still Crowder
9 10 3 Get Behind Me Emerson Day
10 1 Mighty Name Of Jesus Hope Darst

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “What If” – Matthew West
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “The Gospel” – Ryan Stevenson

GOD DID IT – Micah Tyler’s former # 1 smash reaches my Top 40 of this era. It’s 1 of my 40 biggest songs over the past 451 weeks. In fact it’s # 35. It’s also – spoiler alert – my current # 1 smash of the entire year thus far !

ONE-HIT WONDERLincoln Brewster had one hit on my chart from January to April of 2018, and it was a big one. It spent 16 weeks in my Top 10, 9 weeks in my Top 3, and 4 weeks at # 1. It was my # 8 hit of 2018. Lincoln proclaims that there is “No One Like Our God”.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 450

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday September 28TH 2025 – the 450TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 16 Breakdown
[5TH week @ # 1]
Andrew Ripp
2 2 15 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
3 3 4 I’ve Just Seen Too Much Big Daddy Weave
4 4 8 Preach Ryan Stevenson Ft. Matt Hammitt
5 7 9 Can’t Steal My Joy Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
6 5 19 God Did It Micah Tyler
7 6 21 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
8 8 4 Still Crowder
9 9 7 Let The Church Sing Tauren Wells
10 10 2 Get Behind Me Emerson Day

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “Into The Wild” – Josh Baldwin
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Broken Things” – Matthew West

JOSIAH QUEEN – His 3RD hit on my chart is now his 3RD Top 5 hit, as “Can’t Steal My Joy” continues its slow ascent. You may think that it’s a quick breakout smash for Josiah and Brandon Lake, but the song has been around all year. It was actually released as a single way back during the early part of January, and some Christian CHR (contemporary hit radio) stations have actually been playing it ever since the start. It’s currently # 2 nationally, and it’ll likely reach # 1 next week. And there’s a possibility that it could reach the top of my chart either next week or soon after.

ONE-HIT WONDER7eventh Time Down from Mount Vernon Kentucky have been rockin’ together for Christ for 21 years. You may know them for “Just Say Jesus” in 2013, or perhaps “God Is On The Move” from 2015 into 2016. But it was a late-2017 / early-2018 hit that reached # 2 on my chart for 4 weeks in a row and spent 16 weeks overall. That was “Only King Forever”, and it was the first and only time that they appeared on my chart.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp