A question from Brenda...with an answer...

Received this message from Brenda earlier today (and just this minute learned that they have arrived in New Orleans and are unpacking.  Hooray!!!! Your blogging deacon is carefully avoiding the "A" word....but she's thinking it...):

"Forgot to tell you that it seems like every hundred miles or so, we would see three crosses (large - 20' tall; two side crosses are white and the middle (higher cross) is usually brown), set up like the crosses from the crucifixion.  Do you know which church or denomination puts those up along interstate 81?  Regardless, it's a great reminder of why we're doing this trip, and we're all noticing them.
Tennessee is the 10th state we've been through, with Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana on tap for today."

Your faithful reference librarian did some Googling--here's the answer  (from RoadsideAmerica.com)

"Those sets of crosses were all put up by the same man, Bernard Coffindaffer, a once-wealthy West Virginia businessman. He spent more than $2.5 million putting them up after a vision following open heart surgery told him to start building "crosses of mercy." The first trio was built north of Charleston, WV, and eventually some 1,800 were planted across 29 states. Coffindaffer's crosses are two pale blue ones and a yellow one, painted these colors to represent the colors of the sky and the light of the sun over Jerusalem. The crosses are treated with a saline solution and built to last 35 years. Coffindaffer eventually went broke, and died in October, 1993, after more than ten years of building."

I'm glad they are reminding you of the reason you are doing this work, and I suspect that Rev. Coffindaffer is too, from his current vantage point! :-) More about the crosses and Rev. Coffindaffer