Papa Jim answered the phone shortly after noon.  Was he home?  Could the two pastors come over for a visit?  They would be "right there".  Since they were operating on Cameroonian time, their "right there" turned out to be three hours later.  

Papa Jim was home alone when they arrived.  He sat them down in the living room.  Gave them soft drinks.  Politely chatted away with them on whatever topic they chose.  Knew that sooner or later they would get to the real reason for the visit.  Sure enough, more than an hour after they arrived, they began explaining how God was leading their church to move to a new location.  (God gets blamed for an awful lot of things.)  

Bit by bit the real story began coming into focus.  The owner of the property they had been using wanted his land back.  They were given a deadline for getting off his property, which had come and gone.  They managed to find another place where they could temporarily relocate the church.  But they were fearful of having the same thing happen to them there in the near future.  So the best solution would be to buy land and build their own building.  

Amazingly, a search for vacant land in that part of town turned up a wonderful opportunity.  The parcel of land was way bigger than their little group of 20 would ever need.  But just think what they could do!  Once the land was bought and paid for, and a lovely, modern church building was built, they would have plenty of room left over for a school and even a hospital.  

At this point in the conversation the senior pastor pulled out a rather elaborate letter that they had had printed up.  It talked about all these wonderful, visionary plans.  And Jim Tucker's name was printed on the letter!  Would you look at that!  They had even selected how much money Papa Jim would of course be willing to contribute to the initial land purchase and how much he would then give for the church building.  It seems that Jim Tucker was to be the main benefactor for their elaborate vision.  The implication was clear.  Once the church was built, said Jim Tucker would continue producing money from his bottomless supply of funds to build the school and then the hospital.

Sadly, the two pastors left Shiloh empty handed.  But they will be back.  They simply have to come again and see if they can find Mama Alice at home.  Surely they will be able to convince her to convince her husband to get on board with this vision that is straight from God.  

I DON'T THINK SO!  But nice try guys!!!  Life is seldom dull at Shiloh.  (Did we mention that before?)