St. Louis

I am in the zone, so I will try and rattle off another blog before I hit the hay...
We landed in St. Louis Friday night, ate at Nacho Mama's with some of Laura's friends, and then met up with some young boys shooting off some neighbor-donated firecrackers in their front yard with our new host, Steve. We went inside and met the beautiful family that graciously welcomed us in their home. One of Laura's former Sunday school girls came over with a homemade chocolate cake, and we all sat around as the group swapped funny memories and Candace pulled out the wedding photos.


We got a great night's sleep and then we went over to the home of a fabulous graphic artist our new friend Pete put us in contact with and had lunch and a fascinating conversation with the artist, his wife, and their pastor who was over helping build a deck. We talked about our journey, what we were learning, and they talked about their work and how God was using them in their respective fields.
We stopped by Laura's favorite Christian bookstore to get a replacement Bible for the one she gave to Phoebe back in New Mexico. Then we went out to Forest Park and got some great footage, some pictures of the St. Louis Art Museum, and landed an interview with a man as we were leaving the park.




We went to dinner that night with Laura's friend, Greg, caught a beautiful sunset, and made our way back to our "home away from home."

The next morning our host family prayed with us, and based on our conversation, we went to the church of the pastor we met the day before, expectant of a wonderful sermon. We were not disappointed. Lance preached transparently about loving your enemies from the Sermon on the Mount passage. He struck a chord in me when he used Dixie Chicks lyrics for his introduction and his key translation was Eugene Peterson's The Message. He passionately taught his congregation from his own struggles with forgiveness. It was beautiful to watch him love on and encourage his church members and to see them respond in like to him as they met after the service at the sanctuary door.
We had lunch with Greg, said our goodbyes, and then headed to Chicago.
It is almost 4 A.M. and I have to get up in a couple of hours and make a new priceline bid for a room tomorrow. I will check back in and give you the Windy City lowdown as soon as I get back to the computer...we are having an incredible stay so far...more later...

Kansas and Missouri

Hi all,
This is the third time that I have tried to blog tonight and everytime I go to save it, it gets lost...I am persistent, so one last try. Sorry that I have not checked in since Denver. We have pretty much had limited internet accessability since then, so I will do my best to update you on the latest...We left Denver and made our way across the Great Plains, seeing a lot of flat land and cornfields.


We made a stop for the night in Hays, KS.




We then journeyed in silence to Kansas City and stayed the night on the Missouri side. We made our way across the sky walkway from our hotel to have dinner and visit the Crayola store in the Crown Center.



After a heart-to-heart back in our room, we went for a late night visit to IHOP (International House of Prayer).



It was amazing to be in a place where worship and intercessory prayer happen 24/7. During our trip in silence, I kept longing for a place where I could literally stretch out on my face before God and lay everything, including me, down before Him. I got the opportunity to do just that. Although we were only there a couple of hours, it made me crave the day when I will no longer have to shut my eyes to get close to God, but instead will be forever in His presence.
The next morning we got up and wandered over to Jefferson City, Renee's childhood home. It was fun watching her discover just how different things are when you're all grown up. We got great footage of her old house, the neighborhood, her old school, and her church. We also got an interview with a lady (Tasha) in her old neighborhood.

After Jefferson City, we headed to St. Louis. There is so much to show and tell there, I'll just post it in a different blog. Sweet dreams...