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!!