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!!