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!!