Count it all joy

After a rigorous start to tour, we finally got a little bit of a break this week, spending Monday night on campus at Moody Bible Institute. We were so blessed by our host Elizabeth, who is an ex-continental. She took us for some Chicago deep dish pizza, and took us to see the sights of the Windy City, and even treated us to homemade pancakes in the morning. It was great to finally have time to relax as a group and do a little sightseeing and a lot of photo shoots- which I guess is inevitable with a director who is a photographer. :-)

The rest was short-lived though because, on our drive to Indiana, the truck got pulled over by the police for missing a license plate, which had been stolen during our time in South Dakota. Between that, hitting Chicago traffic and having an unforeseen time change, we ended up arriving to the church for our Tuesday concert at 7pm (which is when the concert was supposed to start!). The Lord gifted us with the fastest setup yet though and it ended up being a blessed night of worship. The theme that I have sensed from the Lord this past week, with all the vehicle mishaps and different struggles, has been to count it all joy. Whatever the situation, there is joy to be found in the Lord, if we only seek it.

We are currently in Amish country in western PA, which is one of my favorite places. Doris's grandparents live here and opened up their bed & breakfast to our whole group for dinner and group time last night. It's not every day you get to roast hot dogs and marshmallows in a fireplace while singing Christmas carols in October. All the girls have had the blessing of being in this house for two nights. It's just like being with my own grandma. I love it!

Overall, it has been a great week and we are blown away by how fast the time is going. As a tour, we are trying to prepare our hearts and minds for all that the Lord wants to do in us and through us. Pray that we would make the most of each day, taking every opportunity to give ourselves to the Lord for whatever He wants of us and, no matter what happens, that we would count it all joy. Thank you for praying!
Laureen