Parting was such sweet sorrow

This morning we said our goodbyes, loaded up, and headed out a few minutes after 8. We will miss our new friends but are ready to see our families. The border crossing went without incident (even I got through w/ no problems). Many traffic delays led to us not getting to Hershey park until 6 but we still had a great time. A brief rain shower thinned out the crowd and left our group to get in tons of riding. The hotel had a problem w/ our rooms so it took a while to get settled. We will load the vehicles again at 8 and set sail toward Knoxville. If timing works the way it did on the way up here, we should arrive some time around 6 or 7. Will is sick so please pray for him. It will be a long ride tomorrow if he doesn't get to feeling better. Thanks to all those who followed the blog and a final apology to parents who didn't see pictures of their children. I attempted last night to add pictures and the internet kept cutting out and I simply didn't have the patience to stay up until it worked right. Peace to you all.

almost loaded and ready to head south

not much to tell about today. we went to the market this afternoon after sleeping in. then we went to the royal canadian mounted police sunset ceremony. it was AWESOME! the vehicles are loaded with everything except our bedding and our overnight bags. it will be sad leaving our new friends. it will be sad to not be together in a couple of days (yes i know that i'm weird for enjoying being w/ this many kids for so long). but we will be glad to be in a place where our cell phones can be used normally and where we can be back with our family and friends. thanks to everyone for following the blog this week. the notes from home have been great. i am going to sit here and do a few pictures so that all parents can finally see their babies. i apologize again for not getting more up. time seems to fly when you have no sleep. i will post one last time from pennsylvania tomorrow and then i will keep the blog going with updates about our missions involvement at the church. peace to you all. it's been a fun week eh?

it is finished

our work has been completed. we had great worship experiences today but we missed all of you being a part of it. one of the community leaders was at the friday service as well as this morning. he told jeff that he would be talking to the pastor more about christianity. what a blessing to know we have had a small impact. we have been told that the mayor of ottawa has asked about our group because he has heard about what we were doing both in the community and in the church. the service this morning began with baptism and ended with the congregation giving us gifts. we enjoyed a cookout with the congregation and we are now about to go swimming. we are all tired but i think everyone feels good about all the work we have done. Praise the Lord for all of our experiences. tomorrow we will relax and enjoy more of the city and tuesday we will load up and begin our journey home. we look forward to seeing you and sharing more stories. i apologize for not having posted more pictures but i seem to keep being too tired to take more time in the evenings. i will do my best to put some more up tonight. grace and peace to you all.

another day

thanks to everyone for their comments. we enjoy every night reading them as a group. gary rochelle, you have set the bar high. we look forward to the next installment. this morning started very early for some as we began working at a yard sale at 7:00. Others got up a little later and got back to work. Lots of the projects were finished up today. Some of the group spent a while walking around the neighborhood handing out information about the church. tomorrow we will be worshiping with these congregations. the boys and the 3 girls who sing will be attending a worship service at the anglican church at 9 a.m. the rest will join us for worship at eastview baptist at 11:00. as you pray for us please remember us as we lead worship a final time. we have been blessed to have a couple of the youth from here hang out with us today as well as one of the youth leaders. we visited the parliament building today and also another great landmark of the town, the mall. everyone is tired. everyone could use a lot more sleep than we're getting ready to have. but everyone is keeping a good attitude and working hard. God has blessed us. We hope God is blessing this church. And we hope that God has been blessing you this week. goodnight all.

evening has come

worship has just finished and the team is downstairs having a birthday party for jessica and devan. worship tonight was awesome for me. we heard three of our own share their testimonies. karen, julie and erin all talked about how they have experienced God in their own way. the dramas were excellent and all pointed toward each person needing to follow Christ. it is so great to worship with this group of youth. we got the refrigerator today and had a little down time as i mentioned earlier. we have another church member who is fixing us shrimp and pasta tomorrow night. wish you were here with us to experience what God is doing. peace to you all.

afternoon blog

Howdy folks. Today has been a little slower. Some jobs have been finished. We have practiced for the worship service and are simply taking some time to relax. Before long we will go shower and get ready for worship. One of the church members has bought us pizza for dinner. After worship we will have a birthday party for devan and jessica. wish you all could be here. everyone seems to be feeling ok today. more pictures and blogging later.