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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

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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

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 12TH 2025, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

This morning at my home church we’ll be celebrating Pastor Appreciation Day. It’s traditionally celebrated at many churches during the 2ND Sunday of October. We’ll do so with a special breakfast 90 minutes before service starts.

Several years ago I was presented with that coffee mug from my church family for Pastor Appreciation Day. I decided to take it to work and use it as my new coffee mug there since my old coffee mug was – well – old.

I had a “guest chair” at the edge of my workstation that was used by my coworkers and customers to discuss business (or non-business). That mug and warmer (both of which I still use today in my home office) were in clear view of that guest chair. It began getting noticed. I lost a few coworkers who no longer wanted to discuss non-business matters. I even lost coworkers who didn’t want to have any contact with me at all. They liked me as Chris, but they no longer liked me once they discovered that I was Pastor Chris away from the workplace. Maybe they thought that I would use them in a sermon. (And in fact – I did use general work situations in sermons – both positive and negative – without using real names.)

I still wonder if I should have never brought that coffee mug to work.

I’m not one to go around telling people that I’m a Pastor. I let them discover it on their own. Here in Sebring I’ve done that at my home church (both of them since 2023), at the multiple museums that I’m a member of, and even here in my own neighborhood. Once they find out on their own – then I confirm it. Sometimes it leads to a glorious renewed relationship. Sometimes it’s the end of the relationship.

I’m not a fan of braggadocious Pastors who go around telling people how great they are because they are a Pastor for however many years at a church attended by hundreds (or thousands) with multiple services every weekend at multiple campuses in multiple cities (or continents). I’ve served alongside a few Pastors like that. There are plenty of them on TV. They want you and everyone else to know that they are a Pastor. That’s not displaying God’s fruit of self-control. That’s not humbling yourself before the Lord, as written in James 4:10.

On this Pastor Appreciation Day – I thank those Pastors who are humble as they serve the Lord and lead – not their church – but God’s church.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord – and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know – then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

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

Categories
Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Travel

Coffee, Mexican, Whataburger, Texas BBQ

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This week it’s Part 2 of my 4-part series on my recent trip to visit family in the Wichita Falls Texas area. Let’s continue the fun and food !

After one of my family members picked me up at Wichita Falls Regional Airport (#SPS) – we headed into town to Collective Coffee. It sits caddy-corner to Midwestern State University (#MSU). It sits at a former Shell service station. Its parking area amusingly sits in the former lanes of the gas pumps. The cafe has been open for about 4½ years. It’s in an old building that was built in 1964. I wonder if it was a service station for all of those years ?

At Collective I enjoyed a 16-ounce Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte and a large warmed-up Blueberry Muffin. Both were pretty good. I forgot what my cousin got, but she didn’t like it all that much. She exclaimed, “1 out of 10 – do not recommend”. Upon further review I convinced her to bring her rating up to a 4 out of 10, as service was good. (But memo-for-record – it’s not on the list for future visits.)

Later that same afternoon we went to a sprawling family-owned Mexican restaurant – El Mejicano – to partake in their bargain $10.99 all-you-can-eat buffet. It was a Thursday-night-only special during the month of September to celebrate their 42ND anniversary. The wait to get in was long (about a half-hour). The last time I was in Wichita Falls – 13 months prior for a single day visit with my brother – we also enjoyed the buffet there.

Fun Facts: About 150,000 residents call the Wichita Falls area home. That’s 130,000 in Wichita County, 11,000 in Clay County (to the east), and 9,000 in Archer County (to the south). Wichita Falls itself claims over 100,000 residents. None of my family live within the city limits. (They live in Clay and Archer Counties.) My Aunt and Uncle used to live in Wichita County, but to the west of the city limits.

Late the next morning I got to choose the fast-food restaurant to go pick-up lunch at and take to my Aunt and Uncle’s soon-to-be former house of 40 years. As we approached one of those blue restaurant signs alongside the freeway – I saw Whataburger. If you read my multi-part #TravelThursday series from earlier this year – then you may remember my previous disappointment with the Whataburger drive-thru experience where everyone got a burger except for me. That would not happen again.

Later that same afternoon we headed down to Archer County (Lakeside City) to my first-cousin’s house. My Uncle lives there too. And also my favorite cat Gracie. And also my new canine friend Lacey. My first-cousin picked-up Texas Best BBQ (pulled pork, smoked turkey, and sides), and we enjoyed it all.

Next #TravelThursday starts with a donkey and a buffalo. Let’s keep traveling together.

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