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!