There's No Place like . . . Kansas

Paxico, Kansas
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This evening we pulled in at suppertime to the home and farm of Tom & Shelley Stafford, parents of friends of ours from Multnomah Bible College, in Hays, Kansas. Bethesda Place is their home, as well as home to 7 special-needs men, most of whom have lived here with the Stafford’s for over 25 years. We are staying in a cozy one-room cabin they built on their 30 or so acres in the area they refer to as their “park” - replete with winding brick paths, shade trees, an above-ground pool, tree house, hammock, and more…After dinner, the children swam in the pool, enjoying turn after turn on the water slide. Clouds gathered in the large Kansas sky as night began to fall, but so far the storm cells have completely gone around us.

Paxico, Kansas
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On our drive from Topeka to Hays today, we took our time and enjoyed several colorful detours. Paxico was advertised extensively along I-70 as a town with antiques, so we exited the freeway in search of vintage treasures, to find a nineteenth-century pioneer town preserved as antique stores. Its quaintness was accentuated by the virtual absence of human life - I saw one person during the whole hour we were there. Most of the stores were closed, and the dusty streets were empty…

Signs for the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church pulled us again from the freeway, this time miles down several two-lane roads which eventually became unpaved and basically one-lane by the time we pulled up to the historic church. The mid-nineteenth century building did not disappoint with its rustic stone walls, steeple, and tall shuttered windows - as picturesque as I‘d imagined an old church in the middle of Kansas to be. And our curiosity as to its name was satisfied by fliers detailing the church’s history that were available in a mailbox outside the door.

The Historic Church
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The town and church were founded in the mid-1800’s by a group of settlers from Connecticut who were funded and sent by their Congregational churches to help make Kansas a “free state” during the volatile years leading up to the Civil War. Henry Ward Beecher, father of Harriet Beecher Stowe and famous minister, promised to personally supply the settlers with 25 rifles if his congregation would match his gift with 25 more rifles. More than 27 rifles were donated, in addition to his 25; and 25 Bibles were also given to send with the group. Hence the name: Beecher Bible and Rifle Church… Services are still held every Sunday in the building.

Beecher Bible and Rifle Church
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Being in the state of Kansas really demanded that we take the next detour - to the town of Wamego - home to the likes of the Oz Museum, The Emerald City Grocery, & Toto’s Tacoz. Since our children have yet to see the movie, and since our entertainment has been mostly limited to free attractions on this road trip, we merely looked in the windows of the museum, home to the 2^nd largest privately-owned collection of Oz memorabilia in the world. At first Adam was worried about leaving our carrier on top of the van while we walked the main street of the town, until we realized that every car parked in front of the businesses we passed from the bank to the drug store had been left unlocked and engines running!

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We did lunch at Toto’s Tacoz, a small family-owned taco place decorated in Oz fashion, where the husband and wife owners & two employees stood behind the counter and watched as the five of us ate at one of the two tables in the little space. The food was fresh, cheap, & satisfying; the restaurant clean, and the service friendly to be sure - not bad for tacos in Kansas!