Somebody's Praying Us Through

This article recounts the many "divine appointments" and special blessings of November 7th to November 13th.

As I have already mentioned, our boss, Mr. Bryant, came to visit us to check up on our progress and to sharpen us more. This was the week that he visited us and it was really neat that he was able to experience most of this with us.

Sunday
Dale and I decided to attend the church of the school we were going to be at the next day for the morning service. When we arrived, we found that they had evangelist Ed Dunlop with them that week so we decided to attend both services at this church. Evangelist Dunlop is well known for his work with children ministries, but he brought forth some great truths that even as an adult, I needed to be reminded of. We also very much appreciated Evangelist Dunlop's reminder of how simply salvation is.

Monday
After we arrived at our school on Monday morning, we went out to the van to get our equipment to set up and there beside our van was our lovely boss, Mr. Bryant. For some reason, it was different to see him outside of Pensacola, but at the same time, it was neat to have him with us.

While we were setting up, a gentleman and his son walked through the doors of the church. Whenever the administrator asked them how he could help, they said that they were there for the presentation. This father and son drove over an hour from Cape May to Absecon, NJ to meet with Dale and I! Dale had contacted the son a couple weeks before since he was a homeschooler in New Jersey. We had never had a homeschooler show up at a presentation and it was a great encouragement and wonderful opportunity!

Tuesday
On Tuesday, we visited Gloucester County Christian School where Evangelist Rich Tozour graduated from. This was a very large school which sometimes can hinder us getting to meet the students on a personal level. After the presentation, we joined the students for a class which turned into a study hall. I had a blast playing Dale and I's new game, Bananagrams, with some of the girls in the class! After the study hall, we sat in on the handbell class as they prepared for a state competition in the spring.

After we left the school, we stopped by to visit a family whose children attend PCC. This family owns one of the largest garden nurseries on the east coast! We were given a personal tour (by golf cart) of the enclosed facilities by another PCC alumnus that is working for the company. We had never seen such a big facility before or realized the process that goes into growing flowers year-round. We even got to see the poinsettias that were being grown to be sent to decorate the White House for Christmas!

Tuesday night we drove over to Newark, Delaware to once again see the Wessburgs as I spoke about in my last post. It was wonderful to be reunited with them within such a short period of time!

Wednesday
At our school on Wednesday, we met a girl that had already decided that she wanted to attend PCC for the nursing program! We were also able to talk to her mom as she was a teacher at the school. I am always so excited to help students (and parents) prepare to come to college!

We relocated Wednesday to be closer to our next school and ended up in a dinky little town. Dale and Mr. Bryant looked through the phonebook and computer for a church to attend that night and found one where two people from the church had applied to come to PCC.

When we pulled up to the church, it looked like a store front, and then when we pulled into the parking lot, everyone came out to see us. We walked in the door and were treated like celebrities! The pastor sat us down right away, gave us some pie, then one by one called the teenagers from the church over to meet us! When he called a young lady named Erika over while explaining that she was a recent PCC Alumnus, I turned around to look and saw Erika Rugenus, a friend I had met at college!! As Mr. Bryant put it, there was squeeling across the room. :-) It was such a surprise to see a familiar face at this small church!

The students that had already applied to PCC were not there at the time, so the Assistant Pastor's wife drove to pick them up since they usually came on the bus. We had a wonderful time after the service getting to chat with them and help them get ready to come to college in January!

Thursday
We visited a school and had a great lunch with Dr. Riddell afterwards. As we left the diner, we bid our farewell to Mr. Bryant and departed ways. Later in the afternoon, we returned back to the school so Dale could attend the boys basketball practice.

Friday
Since our school for Friday was not until later in the day, we had some time to stop by a few ministries in the morning. We noticed that there was a Christian school just a few miles from our hotel, so we decided to do a quick stop-by to give them some information. When we arrived, the guidance counselor informed us that they had a senior young lady that was very interested in applying to PCC and that she had recently returned from visiting the campus! She even went and got the young lady out of class so she could ask us any questions that she had!

After our school presentation, we drove from New Jersey to Reading, PA. As we were checking in at the Inn at Reading, the desk worker informed us that they were out of King bed rooms so we had been upgraded to a Executive Suite!! We said that would be fine and had relaxing weekend in a large, cozy room. :-)

Sunday
Throughout the last week, a young lady at a school in Collegeville, PA had been texting back and forth with me. She told me that the play they were practicing for when we were there was going to be performed this Sunday. It "just so happened" that we were staying only 40 minutes away from Collegeville! We were able to attend the play which was entitled "Cutting the Ties" and was about our need to not let anything stop us from the work the Lord has called us to do. They did a wonderful job and the play had a deep impact and needed message. The students couldn't believe that we came back to watch them perform! It was very neat to encourage them by attending but we were even more encouraged through the message.

While we were there, we were able to visit Isreal and Shalee again and remembered to take a picture this time!

Great Company, Lasting Memories

Great Company

One of the great advantages to being in many different places is getting to see many people that we wouldn't on an ordinary basis. In the past two weeks, we have had several of these oppurtunities come across our paths and every time it was a wonderful blessing. It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing a familiar face when we are with different people on a day-to-day basis. We were greatly reminded in these past two weeks how thankful we are for great Christian friends.

The Tuesday after we left Harrisburg, we spent the day at Valley Forge Baptist Academy where we were personally escorted around by Israel Alejandro, a friend from college. It was wonderful to catch up on what he was doing since college and see the great miniustry he is involved in. His wife, Shalee, joined us and we headed out to Olive Garden for lunch. This was not my first lunch with Shalee, as we weekly had lunch together with our mutual friend (and bridesmaid) Gretchen at college. It's been awhile since we had lunch with a young married couple and we thoroughly enjoyed the great company!

Later that week, we had a couple schools scheduled around Lancaster, PA so we wanted to meet up with Travis Weyandt at Lancaster Bible College. It just so happened that the day that we were closest to him, he had a playoff game AND his mom was going to be there!!! We have tried several times to get together with the Weyandts when we were home, but we finally got to catch up...several hours away from home. :-D We had a wonderful time watching Lancaster Bible be victorious and catching up with each other. We extended our visit with dinner at Texas Roadhouse...a first for Dale and I.

 

(Side note: the kids are in their pj's since they were getting ready for a late night drive to Duncansville. Pictures of their home on wheels and more of the kiddos are posted under "Snapshots".)

After parting ways with the Weyandts, we headed to Carneys Point, New Jersey, just south of Philadelphia. That night we got a call from Pastor Wessburg letting us know that their family would be wrapping up services at a church just north of Philadelphia that Sunday. We made definite plans to be there and could not wait to be reunited with the Wessburgs and meet all of their adorable munchkins!

The hour drive Sunday morning was so worth it as we heard great preaching from Evangelist Rich Tozour and then spent the rest of the day catching up with Miss Candace and Pastor Mike. I had a front row seat watching a cute pregnant lady keep three young ones entertained in their traveling trailor while Dale helped Pastor Mike get the truck and trailor ready for departure. What a blessing to just be in the presence of the ones who greatly impacted us during the crucial times of our teenage years. Dale and I thank the Lord for such wonderful examples! Our time with the Wessburgs greatly impacted us in another way as they introduced us to bananagrams! We and our restaurant dining will never be the same. :-D

Well, I guess another person that can be listed under "Great Company" is the head of the Promotions department (aka our boss), Mr. Bryant, who came to spend the first four days of this week with us. Since we are newbies on our first semester, Mr. Bryant came to follow us around and encourage us in ways that we can improve. We truly were thankful for him taking the time to leave his family and come to New Jersey to help us better reach students. We learned a lot and definitely have some new perspectives.

As he was visiting with us we were able to go to another church service the Tozour/Wessburg Team was holding, but this time in Delaware. Dale and I thoroughly enjoyed getting more time with the Wessburg family, but we were even happier that Mr. Bryant and Bro. Tozour had the oppurtunity to catch up as they had been groomsmen in each other's weddings 20 years ago! This week was also a wonderful time of "divine appointments" that left us throughly amazed and thankful. Read more about these in the next post--"Somebody's Praying Us Through".

Lasting Memories

Another advantage of traveling is getting to see many places that we wouldn't have an oppurtunity to on a daily basis.

As I mentioned before, Dale and I spent a weekend just south of Philadelphia. On the Saturday of that weekend, we got up the courage to explore downtown Philly. For a couple from the little town of Duncansville, Philly is quite intimidating, starting with the parking! After getting situated on a random back street and putting everything half worth anything far out of sight, we set off to explore historic Philadelphia. We started at the Visitor's Center where we picked up our tickets to Independence Hall and asked where we can find the "Rocky Steps". We thought this was quite the random question, but the desk worker said it was more than common. What a historic country we live in! :-D We headed straight to Independence Hall for our tour and were amazed to be standing in the very room where our country's foundations were laid!

After our tour, we jaunted across traffic to view the "Grave of the Unknown Soldier" and then onto the Liberty Bell. I think we did the quickest tour of the Liberty Bell as we realized in line that our parking time was ending before we even reached the door. So we quickly walked through the display building until we found the Liberty Bell, had a security guard snap our picture, than ran to find our parking spot before our time expired.

We then braved some more Philly traffic as we made our way to the Philadelphia Art Musuem to see those monumental stairs and take a picture with the Rocky statue. As we did so, we learned a very valuable way to get out of leaving a tip for a service we did not ask for -- hope that the police show up. As I was taking a picture of Dale with the Rocky statue, a man that was hanging out there insisted that I get my picture with Dale and the staute...at no cost, of course, Well, as he was finishing our oh-so-lovely (and blurry) picture session, he had just enough time to mention that he appreciates tips before the police pulled up and he booked it out of there. We were quite happy with the timing. Dale also took the plunge and ran up the Art Musuem steps in Rocky fashion.

The week after our Philly weekend, we visited some great schools, starting with an all-Mennonite one in Reading, PA. It had been 8 years since someone had come to this school to present the college AND we are the only college that they allow in to present, so we had a captivated and excited audience. After the presentation, we stayed and chatted with the juniors and seniors for almost a half hour after they were suppose to be in class. This school started our week out on a great foot and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing their dreams and aspirations.

We visited many other friendly schools that week, but unfortunately my lasting memory of the week was of the inside of our hotel room as I was knocked flat with a cold. Thankfully, our schedule had been worked out perfectly where I was able to get some extra rest while Dale went ahead and did all of the work. I was greatly appreciative that week of a sensitive husband who has great compassion.

We moved that week from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and spent the weekend outside Atlantic City. We pretty much only went downtown for dinner which was atrocious in itself. It was neat to see the bright lights and building size advertisements but it was crazy to realize how much people waste at the casinos and other sin-filled recreation that is there. That Sunday we visited the church of the school that we were going to be at the next day and found that they had Evangelist Ed Dunlop holding meetings there. It was great to see an example of a man that has a heart for young people and children. We ended up attending both services at the church and were encouraged by their ministry.

Stay tuned for an update on an exciting week of no coincidences!

Meeting a Role Model

Don't you just love how the Lord puts things together to give us an extra special blessing? I thoroughly experienced this this weekend as I had the wonderful oppurtunity to meet a lady that I consider a role model. For most of you that know me pretty well, you know that one thing I am very much interested in is saving money, getting coupons and freebies and everything along those lines. Crystal Paine is the author of the blog moneysavingmom.com in which I have diligently followed and learned greatly from for several years now.

Dale and I were originally planning to spend the weekend in Gettysburg since it was close to our school on Monday, but the hotel prices were outrageous. So we decided to stay another weekend in Harrisburg. While I was catching up on Crystal's blog on Friday I found out that she was speaking at a conference in Harrisburg at the Sheraton -- right across the road from where we were staying!!! Imagine my complete surprise as I found out that this great Christian lady from Kansas was in the same place that we were and then my further surprise when we were able to meet up today!

Let's just say it was an unexpected surprise that I still can't believe but am so thankful for the amazing oppurtunity!

You can check out Crystal's blog and be inspired to save more in order to give more at http://www.moneysavingmom.com/.

Two Weeks At A Glance

Dale and I kicked it into high gear as we finished out West Virginia last week and moved up to Pennsylvania in a rather quick fashion.Here are the highlights from the last two weeks:

Weekend in Charleston

Dale and I enjoyed a great weekend in Charleston. We decided we needed a little exercise especially with the beautiful weather on Saturday so we headed out to Coonskin Park. We enjoyed a wonderful hike on some very narrow, but natural, trails that led us to a couple of caves.

After our hike we drove around the park and were very impressed with how well kept and beautiful it was. My favorite part was a pond surrounded by beautifully covered trees and geese. One of the pictures I snapped here is at the top of this post.

That weekend we also drove to Fellowship Baptist Church in Vienna, WV. We had quite the time getting there--almost running out of gas, going to the old location--but we made it and were able to do a presentation in the youth Sunday School and setting up a table in the atrium for after the service. We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch with the pastor--Pastor Jonathon Landis--and his family.

"Meeting Those People"

Our last week in West Virginia was definitely busy and crazy. The whole week was packed with our largest schools yet. Dale was daily giving presentations to around 100+ students and sometimes giving two presentations. It's been wonderful to see him so comfortable speaking in front of a large group of students, especially when I know that it is so out of his normal comfort zone. Although the schools were big, we were able to spend some one-on-one time with students that were truly interested and meet some great teachers that really care about the future of their students. The extra time at the larger schools mixed with visiting churches and longer travel times made for an extremely exhausting week, but it wasn't over...

Teen Harvest Rally, Morgantown, PA

After two presentations at a school in Ravenswood, West Virginia, we hit the road for the 7 1/2 hour trip to Philadelphia to pick up the Proclaim Ministry Team for the Teen Harvest Rally. It was very difficult as we reached the Turnpike entrance in Bedford to keep going east instead of taking that usual route to Duncansville. We got settled into our hotel 30 minutes away from the airport, made a quick run to Wal-Mart, then set out to navigate the Philadelphia airport. It was crazy windy and we were crazy confused as we picked up the rental car then picked up our 5 member team sometime after midnight. We didn't get back to the hotel until after 1am and were up and ready to go by 6:45am!

We had such a wonderful time with our group at the Teen Harvest Rally.It started a little hectic getting in the display tent and trying to keep our display upright against the constant wind, but we made it all work a had a a blast meeting each teen that came into the tent. The Lord also allowed us to get our first application while at the Rally!! It was also our year to do the special music for the rally, so our team sang at the beginning of each service and were greatly welcomed. Evangelist Tom Ferril was the guest speaker this year and it was a great encouragement to see many teenagers come forward for salvation and dedication. Our team and us had the wonderful oppurtunity to counsel some of the teenagers as they came forward!

There was over 950 teenagers in attendance. The Rally was also filled with many activities such as sumo wrestling, mechanical bull riding, youth group team competitions, giant blow-ups, and lots more activities. I've posted pictures of all the different events on my facebook. All-in-all the rally was a tremendous success and we were so thankful to be a part of it and have a wonderful group to help us out!

After the rally we took the group to one of our favorite restaurants--Longhorn Steakhouse--and then headed back to the hotel to crash. The group had to be at the airport by 7:30 the next morning, so we were up early again to make the 30 min treck to the airport to drop off the team and the rental vehicle. We really enjoyed having 5 college students with us for the weekend and are looking forward to the times we will travel with a team.

Back in Pennsylvania

Since we worked for 6 days straight, our weekend was Sunday and Monday which we spent in Harrisburg. Sunday we were able to get in touch with one of my friends from college--Emily Fortney. We met up with her at her church and then joined her and her friends at the "Soda Jerk" for dinner and milkshakes after church! We definitely had a blast!

On our Monday off, after spending half of the day working, Dale and I took Emily's advice and went to City Island in Harrisburg for some fresh air and a place to test out our new frisbee. This was one of those times in our marriage that I wa so reminded how alike and simple we are. It literally took a soccer field and a frisbee to keep us entertained and laughing for almost an hour! After our breath of fresh air, we found a restaurant in downtown Harrisburg for dinner, then headed to Emily's house for a night of laughter and tackling our laundry. We were so thankful to the Fortney family for allowing us to do our laundry there since the laundry machines at our hotel were out of sevice.

This week was definitely a slower pace than the week before. We started our week on Tuesday with a college fair in Harrisburg. There was a great turnout of colleges and students. We met a lot of solid students with some great questions about college.

Our college tables were placed alphabetically by school name, so we were neighbors with Penn State. :-D What a contrast! We had time at the end of the fair to chat with the Penn State rep and he was totally amazed at our tuition, facilities, and free year of college offer! It was neat to get to brag on the Lord for His great blessing to us!

This week was a slower pace than last week. We toured beautiful PA from Hershey to Philly and even spent Friday in Hagerstown, MD. It was a big contrast compared to last week as we only had one school presentation this week! Next week will pick up pace again. We are staying the weekend in Harrisburg again and then start Monday in Hanover and Gettysburg!

I apologize for the mass of information but I appreciate you following us even in my inconsistency! We are truly thankful for your prayers as we travel. The Lord truly is protecting us!

God Bless!!

Georgia Bound

Dale and I completed our travels to Georgia on Saturday and were excited to check into our hotel for FOUR nights! It does not happen frequently that we are able to stay in a hotel for two nights in a row, let alone four nights! It was also a blessing since the hotel was really nice and they upgraded us to a King Suite without us even asking. :-D

Sunday morning we attended Bible Baptist Church in Hampton, Georgia which is where Stephen and Holly Ashmore attend. It was great to see them and see how big the kids have gotten. The girls are absolutely gorgeous! We ran out for a quick lunch together since they had an afternoon service that day. I totally forgot to get a picture of their growing family, though. :-(

Sunday night we attended the church that the conference was being hosted at. After Dale and I were seated, I was looking around and noticed my roommate from senior year in college walk in! She was there visiting her boyfriend who's Dad is the associate pastor at the church. That was a total surprise and we had a great time catching up!

Nationwide Independent Baptist Fellowship 

Peoples Baptist Church, McDonough, GA

Monday, Dale and I ran a bunch of errands, got the oil changed in the van (since we reached over 5,000 miles), and then went to set up for the conference. The college had shipped the huge (9 ft. wide) display for us to put up. We had never put it up before and just started pulling the pieces and images out. It took us over an hour to set it up and after we had most of it in place, we found the instructions in the case. :-D I don't have a picture of this either...I am really slacking!

The Nationwide Independent Baptist Fellowship was truly a refreshing time. We sat under preaching from Dr. Johnny Pope, Dr. Mike Norris, Pastor Ouellet, and many more. Our job really was just to be a presence so our responsibilities including arriving early and staying late. :-D I was very thankful we were able to take part in this conference.

Here is a picture of the choir that was made up of three different churches from the area.

And this picture is of one side of the church before one of the evening services.

We packed up our display (which was a lot faster than putting it up) on Tuesday night and headed out of Georgia on Wednesday. We drove eight hours and arrived back in "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia. We had a great time reminiscing as we got to the spot where we spent way to much time last Christimas sleeping on the highway as we were stuck in that wonderful storm.

Today we had a small school presentation in the afternoon and I was able to meet up with a girl that I graduated with! It was great surprise to see a familiar face. West Virginia roads are quite interesting so I just wanted to include a picture to show why I have been getting car sick as we travel these roads. They're a bit curvy. :-D

Tomorrow we have two presentations around the Charleston area and then we are staying in Charleston for the weekend. So if anyone knows anything interesting in Charleston, WV, please let us know!!

Surprise!

So I don't remember much about the end of last week since Dale and I were so focused on getting home to see the shocked faces when we showed up at our family's doorsteps! We had a blast surprising our families and getting to spend time with them. It was alot to squeeze in one weekend, but it was so worth it!

This Week

Monday

We had a nice breakfast with my sister, Elisha, packed up and said goodbye to the family. Then we hit the road and headed to Summersville, WV. It was a beautiful ride and we thoroughly enjoyed the mountaneous views all along the way!

Tuesday

Our presentation for Tuesday got cancelled, so we traveled around the Lewiston and Ronceverte area visiting schools and churches to introduce them to PCC. We also stopped by a school that was a Abeka DVD Master school, which means the teachers of the school are the Master teachers from Pensacola Christian Academy and the students watch the DVD's of these teachers. This school was very organized and really neat to see. We had a great time talking to the Administrator and were greatly encouraged. After much running around and spending over an hour to find one school, we ate at a cute restaurant (Friends & Food) in Lewiston and then headed to the hotel.

Wednesday

Wednesday was definitely a day of adaptability!! We showed up at our first school for a presentation and they informed us that they had cancelled us coming back in August since they had another speaker. We had nothing on our itinerary to let us know this so they were kind to let us set up in the lunch room and speak with the Juniors and Seniors after their chapel time. Chapel ran a little long so we ended with only about 20 mins to chat with them and then about 10 mins to tear down and get on the road to make it to our next school in time.

We thankfully made it to the next school in time and stepped in just in time for their lunch. It was definitely a country/mountain school and had some great students. They had us set up in a lunch room and Dale and I learned to adapt to setting up in any situation using whatever is available. Dale did a great presentation to just the Juniors and Seniors. They were very laid back kids and were pretty much interested in having a good time.

Wednesday night we drove back to Ronceverte to go an evening service there. It's quite the different feeling walking into a church that is unfamiliar, but we were so thankful we went. They were a friendly group of people and the service really reminded us of a service at home. After the service, we spent an hour chatting with the Pastor. He even told us that if we were back in the area any time, to get in touch with him and we could stay at his house. It was such an encouragement to see the open doors and open hearts at this church.

Thursday

Thursday was another day of visiting schools and churches, but this time in Beckley, WV. We definitely hit some very interesting roads as we drove to our hotel for the night. I wish I would have been able to take pictures of the close encounters to the mountain side and the windy, windy roads, but I was once again working on not loosing my cookies. :-D West Virginia is a very interesting state. The pastor we spoke with the night before explained to us about the "clannish" behaviors of the families there and how the mountains have kept some of the modern world out. We definitely saw much of this as we drove on these back mountain roads.

Friday

The morning started early as we wanted to leave plenty of time to find our school since the address was very vague. We had to stop at a gas station to get directions to the school, and even with that, we drove on three different back roads before finding the school.

At this school, Dale was scheduled to do a presentation for the highschoolers and a seperate one for the elementary. Dale and I cannot say enough about the time that we spent there today. We were there for about 5 1/2 hours and we loved every minute of it! This was the biggest school we have been at yet and the students responded very well to the presentations. The administrator had a huge burden to see her students succeed in their Christian lives. She even invited us into one of the classrooms to casually talk with the students. This was an amazing  time and we could not thank her enough for giving it to us.

One of the biggest problems we are running into is that students here are quite hesitant about leaving home. And then there are some that are interested, and then their parents are hesitant. They have a lot of hurdles to get over in just deciding to go away to college and the Lord gave us a wonderful oppurtunity to talk from our hearts to them about this. There was even some tears by the end, but it was amazing to get on that level with the students. We were truly encouraged by this school, and especially by the heart of the Administrator.

Well, tongiht we detoured from our original plans and decided to stay in Pigeon Forge, TN since Dale has never been here before. We were able to book a really nice Comfort Suites and are enjoying the beginning of a weekend. Saturday we will finish our travels to Georgia and get ready for the conference at the beginning of next week.

I apologize that this was quite long and that it was a long while in between posts. I really hope that this is not the norm.

Thanks for taking the time to read and pray!!

On The Go

What a blessing that it is already Wednesday!!! This week has been quite busy and a little rough (health wise). But it's down hill from here!

Sunday

After staying in a wonderful Comfort Suites for the weekend, we had an hour and a half drive to church and then another hour drive to our next hotel on lovely Maine back roads. I absolutely love seeing the beautiful scenery as we drive through Maine, but we have definitely experienced some interesting roads. The roads along with the migraine I already had got the best of me and put me down for the rest of the day. I don't really have a picture for Sunday, since I mostly just saw the back of my eyelids. :-) Dale was able to enjoy lunch at a very quaint cafe and then enjoyed a service at another church in the evening.

Monday

We had a little time in the morning so we stopped by the "Desert of Maine" since it was close to our hotel. It is a great "phenomena" in Maine where there is a bunch of sand dunes, including a 90 foot sand dune in the middle of the woods. We pretty much just checked out the gift shop since our dress clothes did not seem appropriate to climb the dunes.

We drove to Lewistown, ME and Dale did a presentation at a school that was not too familiar with PCC. We got some great feedback from the students and really enjoyed meeting and getting to know them! It's so neat to see in just a short time how students minds can be opened up to something they were previously closed to.

The rest of that night was spent on errands and training then Dale passing out by 9:30 (Wow!!!!) because he was sick.

Tuesday
Tuesday was an early start since we had to be at the school by 7:15a and the hotel was a half hour away. Dale did two presentations at two different schools. It's very neat to see his improvement even from the morning to the afternoon. The first school was quite small (3 high schoolers) but had great support from their administration. We drove an hour and a half to the other school which was a little bigger and got great feedback from the students.

This picture is of the bridge that we had to cross to get to the second school in Bucksport, Maine. It is a center supported bridge and was very interesting!

After driving just about 20 minutes more, we got the van washed then went to the hotel to quickly check in and get back on the road. We went and set up for a College Fair at a local school/church, grabbed a quick bite of dinner, then went back to the fair for it's open. The College Fair was a ton of fun! There were around 20 different colleges represented at the fair. It was a profitable time of being able to speak with both students and parents! It looked quite funny since most other schools had only one representative at their table and we had FOUR since Tony and Val are training us. :-D It was good though, because we had many oppurtunites to speak with interested students.

We have two more College Fairs this week on Thursday and Friday evenings. We are looking forward to the oppurtunity to speak one-on-one with more inquiring students.

Wednesday

We were quite bushed from our packed Tuesday and we had yet another early morning! Dale was to do a presentation this morning but when we got to the school, they had us set up our table in a room and interested students came to speak with us. This was kind of a nice blessing since Dale still has his cold. It has been amazing to see him get up and do his presentations with amazing energy and excitement when I know how sick he is feeling! Your prayers are truly at work!

We were also able to join the students in the national "Meet me at the Flag Pole" day. They did their pledges, read scripture, and sang a song at the flagpole. I thoroughly enjoy these oppurtunities to take part in the same activities as the students to get to connect with them a little more.

After our school this morning, we debated about going to Acadia National Park, but we were too beat to enjoy it so we drove 2 and a half hours to our hotel. Praise to the Lord!! The Comfort Suites was on the website for only $50!!! That is outrageously cheap for this really nice hotel. So another night being spoiled...I'll take it!

Weekend Relief

So it's been awhile and I apologize. We kept ourselves quite busy the past few days. :) Here are the highlights.

Thursday

Our trainer's van would not start again so Val and I stayed at the hotel for the morning while the boys drove 40 minutes away to do two presentations. Thankfully, we had AAA come and get the van started then took it to the Honda delearship where they replaced the battery. This was a great blessing since it was the battery's fault and it was still way under warranty! They took good care of us and we were on the road again in no time.

After we reunited with the boys, we all drove to Rockland, Maine to see Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. It was absolutely beautiful! The walk to the lighthouse is 7/8 mile long all on pieced together rocks. We had to keep our eyes on the ground most of the time in order to not trip in the cracks (which were big enough for Dale to climb into!). 

After our walk and looking for seashells, we drove to Camden, ME and had dinner at Bayview Lobster Restaurant where the lobster is quite fresh! Our dinner entertainment was watching Tony crack open and devour his 1 1/2 pound fresh lobster!

It was a refreshing and wonderful evening....until we got to the Admiral Inn. Oh boy! Let's just say, sleeping in the van was very tempting. Sorry, no pictures of it because we didn't really want to remember it.

Friday

After a quite sleepless night, we were packed up and ready to go by 6:45 am and got to our first school by 7:30. It was a small but very friendly school. Then we packed up and drove a half hour to Liberty, ME where Dale did his very first presentation in front of actual high schoolers! He did a wonderful job and really related with the high schoolers. You could hardly tell at all that he was nervous! It was quite impressive and I was very proud of him.

After his presentation, all the guys got changed and played a round of basketball. It was a great visit with this small school and we were able to get to know the students pretty well. It was really neat because three of the schools we had visited were all going to a cross country meet at a school we were at earlier in the week. So we decided to go and cheer them all on! It was great to see everyone again and watch them compete. It was also neat to see all of the schools (9 in the competetion) mingling and hanging out with each other. We truly enjoyed ourselves and were very thankful we went!

Another HUGE blessing from Friday was that the Comfort Suites in Biddeford, ME was willing to give us an amazing deal so we were able to book there for the weekend! What a difference between the Admiral and here! We are really spoiled in this room, but I am so thankful the Lord provided it for us!

Saturday

It was quite the feeling to wake up this morning with no scheduled responsibility. We were able to tackle a couple loads of laundry, eat breakfast and lunch all without leaving the hotel. It was great just to relax. This afternoon we went to a Cabela's that was only ten miles down the road and shopped around for a couple of hours. Dale will be doing some training and washing the van after dinner, but other than that, we have been happy just to chill.

Diving Right In

Well, yesterday ended up being a bit uneventful. We had a nice slow morning (which even included a wake-up swim for Dale and I) and then went to our first school. . When we arrived, the guys were told that the school did not have a way to get in contact with us to let us know that they had another activity scheduled in the same time that we were scheduled. So we were given the boot. :-D We should be back at that school next week for a Christian College Fair so it is not a complete loss.

After we left the school, we drove to our hotel about an hour and a half away. After that weekend of travel, an hour and a half seemed like a breeze! The evening was filled with a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's (love it!), me booking hotels, and practice for Dale.

Today we drove 40 minutes to our first school. The disadvantage of being in this beautiful country is that hotels are pretty spread out, so it is hard to find one in close proximity to the schools. The school we attended today was what is labled as a "Prime" school. When we have a prime school, we usually only have one school that day since we do the high school and elementary chapels and spend most of the day with them.

The Open Door Christian Academy in Lisbon, Maine welcomed us with friendly faces and kind spirits! It was such an encouragement and joy to visit with the students and spend time with the Administrator. After the presentations, the Admin even gave us a tour of the school and they provided lunch for us. Dale and I had a great time sitting at a table with 2 juniors and 3 seventh graders. They were such an inviting group of teens!

As this was Dale and I's first service, we all arrived earlier than our arrival time (which arrival time is usually set for an hour before the presentation). It was a good thing we did because their schedule got switched around and we had ten minutes before the first presentation to set up! We truly dove in to help Tony and Val as much as possible, while still trying to learn how things get set up. It all worked out great and we had a wonderful time at this excellent ministry! This was an AMAZING school to start our tour with! We will be going to their church next Wednesday and I can't wait to go back!

Today was also a "fix-it" day. When we attempted to leave the school, our trainer's van would not turn on. The Administrator was kind to get jumper cables and bring his truck over to jump the van. While we were at the auto parts store getting the battery checked, Dale picked up a kit to fix "our house" (the van). See, we have this really nice invertor to plug into the accessory outlet to plug our electronics into. The other day we figured that I could do my hair while traveling, and so I attempted to use my hair dryer. It wasn't the brightest idea on my end because it turned off in .2 seconds after it turned on. I was really worried that I had broken the invertor (which probably costs alot) but, thankfully, my smart husband figured out that I blew the fuse for the accessory outlet. So today he fixed our home and put a new fuse in. :-D I have been warned to try something smaller next time, like my curling iron.

Tonight we traveled to our hotel and then traveled another 40 minutes to a church that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We arrived late due to van troubles, again. It was an interesting service and I had to keep myself from laughing when the pastor said "Cah" while talking about his car. :-D

Tomorrow we have another prime school and we are greatly looking forward to meeting a new group of students!

Maine Bound

After our stay in Virginia, we drove a short five hours to Hershey, PA on Sunday. The couple that we are traveling with has family in Hershey, so we stopped there so they could get in a quick visit while we were in the area. This left Dale and I to decide what church to attend Sunday night.

It is quite different to not have a "home" church to go to and to have to look up churches in the area. Thankfully, Mechanicsburg, was only 25 minutes away from our hotel and we remembered some folks that went to church there. What a blessing it was to walk into a church and see some familiar, friendly faces! We were able to see our old school administrator, Pastor Ross Ritchey. Also, the pastor happened to be out of town, so Missionary Travis Gravely was there filling in along with his wife Becky. What a wonderful surprise it was to see them!! We also ran into a friend, Caleb Hoffman, who we met through Dale's brother and he had our sides splitting with laughter after the service! What a refreshment to be in a church that made us feel like it was our "home" church!

The Lord also blessed greatly yesterday by providing a super nice hotel at a super cheap rate! If you are ever in Hershey, we highly reccommend the MainStay Suites in Grantville. We had a room with a kitchen (stove top, fridge, dishwasher, etc.), sofa, and King size bed. The hotel also had an indoor mini-golf course and basketball court! We were definitely spoiled!

Today we set out from Hershey and are currently 40 miles from Bangor, Maine. We had some pretty intense driving outside of New York City and we really appreciated your prayers! Today we drove through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Conneticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and now Maine!

Tomorrow we have our first school presentation in Maine. Dale and I will mainly be observing and learning these first few days and then Dale will get the oppurtunity to dive right in while we are still with our trainers. This truly is where the rubber meets the road. Please pray for open hearts from the students and wisdom for us. We cannot thank you all enough for your prayer support!

White Unto Harvest

As we began our travels this morning, we passed through several white cotton fields. The cotton looked as if you could just pluck it off with very little effort. Seeing the blanket of white spread out for acres, we could not help but think of the Christ's command to go because "the fields are white unto harvest." What a reminder as we start this new ministry! I can only imagine the many faces and lives that we will see and be burdened for over the next two years. The Lord has many "divine appointments" already in place and we truly need to empty ouselves daily to be fully used by Him. Please pray with us that we will be focused on His work and His guidance.

We truly appreciate our "home" support and I have started this blog to keep you all updated. We can only imagine what adventures lie in store for us and I am excited to share them all with you! There will probably be times that the days are similar and not the greatest adventure, but my goal is to look for the slightest things that we have been blessed with that we would usually overlook.

To get in touch with us, other then commenting, our email address is Kurtys4Christ@aol.com.

Thanks for joining us for this adventure!