U.S. Midwest: How inhabitants of Missouri’s Ozark Mt. love God and strangers
Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (NIV).
By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher from Branson, MO|editor@globalekklesia.com
From our hotel suite, during a recent trip to Branson, Missouri, local television news and programs bombarded us with news about fabulous theaters that present nightly live-stage performances plus countless recreational sites around that city that await especially first-time visitors for exploration in the Ozark Mountain.
And like thousands of visitors flocking into the Midwestern U.S. city, from around the world for vacation, it became difficult for my wife Martha and myself to ignore those enticing publicity on local radio and television stations.
Without much hesitation or question we set off on Thanksgiving Day (November 23) to find the Ozark Mountain in Branson, MO, and hoped we could pass much of the day at one of the recreation centers we had seen on television.
Searching for the Ozark Mountain
Our first stop landed us at the Ozark College campus off Highway 265, located east of the city-this was after a delectable breakfast at Billy Gails’ restaurant, one of the city’s popular and top-rated breakfast spots.
Hours later, we circled the entire city which sits practically on mountains and hills top, forged from mostly fossils and sedimentary rocks. Before we knew it, we had toured some of Branson’s best features-from the Ozark College to the Branson Landing (the city’s main shopping district), and Chateau On The Lake, a luxurious hotel overlooking the city’s biggest Lake.
A mountainous setting, one, especially a visitor or stranger, must learn to carefully maneuver around when driving at nighttime or in winter, because for every turn he’s likely to be climbing up a hill, or just driving down one of the mountains, while avoiding a sharp cliff or valley.
By comparison Branson resembles pre-war Yekepa city, once a beautiful mining town in the remote far-northeastern end of Liberia, West Africa. This old city once surrounded forest and some of the continent’s highest mountain peaks was built by LAMCO, a Swedish-American owned iron ore company.
But unlike the Nimba-Yekepa iron range, Branson, with a population of more than 12,000 in 2020, remains a paradise of its own, with booming businesses everywhere and of course far more urbanized and larger than Yekepa.
Unfortunately, we didn’t find the “Ozark Mountain” that had very much prompted our trip and we returned to our hotel feeling disappointed.
At the counter, we had barely settled when I brought out the matter to a hotel attendant and explained how we drove throughout the city for hours, in search of the “Ozark Mountain” but found it nowhere!
Her response, however, was anything but the answer I had expected: “James, we’re in the Ozark Mountain,” she replied with a deep sigh. In other words, everywhere in this hilly city including the Thousand Hills Hotel (formerly Radisson Hotel) all forms part of the Ozark Mountain.
Whatever the situation, our experience taught me to first ask questions when in doubt next time before embarking on a similar adventure.
The Ozark people love for God
Visiting Branson for the first time there are two unique things one is most likely to notice at once-local residents’ deep love for the LORD, plus their conspicuous acts of hospitality even to strangers wherever one goes; that’s rarely the case in most other U.S. states we’ve traveled before.
Faith, particularly Christianity seems to stand at the center of the people’s lives here and the proof can be seen almost everywhere you go. Along Highway 65, which runs through Branson, from Minnesota, lined what some may call bigger-than-life size stainless steels made in the form of the Cross used to crucify the Messiah.
In Branson itself, there are actually two downtowns, technically speaking: Branson Landing, next to Lake Taneycomo, plus Uptown Branson where the city’s hotel and theater businesses boom. Yet in either area roadside electronic projectors operated by most businesses often displayed catchy bible verses taken from the Book Peter.
At the same time, daily or weekly newspapers publish Gospel stories as headline news in their front pages. Branson Globe, perhaps the city’s main newspaper, is one of them. Prior to Thanksgiving, the paper’s staff went out and sampled readers’ views regarding Thanksgiving and published it as the lead story.
In a Branson Globe’s news article, published in the Nov. 24th edition, Jehovah God and Jesus Christ of Nazareth became the main subject during which more than a dozen interviewees expressed gratitude to the LORD for providing them with “good health,” “healing,” and also “newborn babies.”
The Globe also lets churches in the region such as the Branson Baptist Church run full-page advertisements otherwise sponsored content in their local tabloids. Often such ads call on “sinners” to confess their “sins” and enjoy the Salvation of the LORD Jesus that had been offered freely to mankind.
The Ozarkers’ hospitality
God Almighty loves hospitality and encourages Christians to always remain hospitable to others including strangers and there might be a reason why: Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (NIV).
Besides, wherever the Love or Spirit of God dwells, there is no doubt one is most likely to see hospitality swell in such a place as in the case with not only Branson but the whole of Missouri.
For instance, we found people-be it Black or White-exceptionally friendly throughout our vacation in Branson, Missouri. From our Thousand Hill Hotel in Uptown, to the Sight & Sound Theater and to Billy Gail’s where we ate breakfast both restaurant workers and customers greeted us warmly with a smile.
In fact, on our first visit to Billy Gail’s, located on top of a mountain overlooking the city, on Thanksgiving Day, a middle-aged couple who sat next to our table rocking their crying-toddler in a stroller motioned at us and waved Goodbye, wishing us a “Happy Thanksgiving.”
The next day, on Friday, Uptown West Branson at the Golden Corral Restaurant, another couple, much older and appeared to be in their 80s, again greeted us heartedly, bidding us “Happy Thanksgiving adventure” as they excused us after eating lunch.
Like the first couple Martha and I met nursing their baby, these seniors just wanted to show their gratitude, perhaps due to the fact that we had chosen their city Branson over countless resorts across the nation instead and had driven some ten hours to spend the holiday with them.
However, we weren’t shocked by their warm welcome because this wasn’t our first trip to Branson or Missouri.
We had first traveled there in 2018 with a church congregation to watch a film on the Prophet Moses and the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. It was a long bus ride halfway across the nation that allowed us to tour the state-of-the-art Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO., where we also spent the night.
In Independence, locals’ hospitality became quite visible; White folks honked and waved at us-something we can’t recall experiencing in most of our travels across the country-as we strolled down a street corner near our hotel to grab some ice cream. And this occurred during rush hour!
At the same time in Branson itself, show business such as live theater stage performance is the city’s chief business, followed by the booming hotel, bar and movie businesses. The Sight & Sound Theater north of the city, also entertains its audience with live stage Christian-oriented performances straight from the Holy Bible.
Entertainment here in fact seems a generational-cultural affair for most families living in the Ozark Mountain just as hunting or storytelling would be for many people from Africa and elsewhere, and parents often passed it onto their young generation as a tradition.
The Hughes Family is among the new generation of young stage entertainers and boasts of having “over 50 amazing singers, dancers and musicians” and markets itself in newspaper’s ads as the city’s “largest live on-stage performing family in the world, all born to entertain!”
Bands compete with each other nightly and if you are fond of Midwest cultural style i.e., “America’s wild west” and Carboy era-lifestyle, Wranglers, Americana, Legends, and Hughes Family theaters would most likely get you hooked.
A special pictorial by James Kokulo Fasuekoi
Related article: Branson, MO: Gospel performing arts-a powerful way to winning souls for Christ/Branson, MO: Gospel performing arts-a powerful way to winning souls for Christ – (globalekklesia.com)
James Kokulo Fasuekoi is an award-winning journalist, author, documentary writer and news photographer. He previously covered civil wars in West Africa for several news media including The Associated Press. Listed on his college’s Dean’s List for academic excellence, he became a Bush Foundation Scholar twice in 2017. His work as a civil war journalist has also brought him face-to-face with the law in his native Liberia, and in the US, where the Fed had him subpoenaed twice to stand as states witness in two major Liberian ‘war crimes trials’ of 2017 & 2018 in Philadelphia. Once an African national ballet dancer, he now writes, photographs and dances for Christ. Read profile @ https://globalekklesia.com/profile/