What a wonderful week we had in Minnesota with our teenagers! God has blessed us with a great group of kids. We were able to see so many different things while we were in Minnesota. The Como Zoo, the Sculpture Gardens, the Mall of America, a comedy show, but most of all we got to see the great need that people in our own country have. The need of Jesus. We were able to minister to 3 different Salvation Army's, church's, schools, homeless shelters, as well as even minister to each other. I know James filled everyone in on the goings on of the beginning of the week, so I'll do my best to fill in the gaps. I will also share what God did for that boy and I shortly after James posted.
Thursday was our "fun" day. We took the kids to the Basilica of St. Mary, where they got to sing. I was pretty jealous of their opportunity. But then after the ensemble sang a few songs, that boy led our entire group in the Doxology. I was so pumped to get to sing in such an AMAZING place. After that, we loaded up and headed to the Mall of America. The first thing that boy, our friends, and I did was face some fears. Ok, so maybe they were more he & I's fears, but we did it! We all got harnessed and did some great little (or big) walking acrossed ropes, wires, to get to the end result of walking "the plank". It was HIGH... and kind of terrifying, but I DID IT!!! Apparently, I did it at least looking confident because that boy is pretty convinced that I'm not scared of heights. (Thanks mom for the many years of gymnastics... lol) It was good for both of us to be able to encourage each other across various places. I was quite pleased to be back on the ground though. We rode a roller coaster (the only one he can do) then headed to ride the log water ride. It was so fun!!! We had a great lunch then separated boys and girls to do our own shopping. We then got to visit the Aquarium. We had to separate again when the 3 of them went to the Mirror Maze. The flashing lights were a concern for me, so I opted to go visit ARCHIVERS. Oh, how I love that store. I really wish we had one, but I enjoyed my short trip through there. :) We joined back up as a group and headed to Buca di Bepo's where we enjoyed some delicious Italian food and some interesting pictures. Then we headed to one of the best comedy shows I have seen. I love improv.
Friday, we packed up all our things and headed toward Windom, where Matt grew up. I was pretty pumped to get to see the places where he lived and meet the people who had such an influence on his life. Even better was the fact we were able to share the gospel in a public school. The kids performed an incredible concert that night bringing tears to my eyes. I was able to enjoy dinner and the concert with that boy's parents. After the concert, we loaded up on the buses and headed home. Our bus broke down, delaying us several hours. God was good and brought someone along who had connections and ended up getting us out of there a lot sooner than it could have been. The kids attitudes were fantastic. They had a great time being stranded. We finally had to tell them it was lights out time. haha... We spent a grand total of 26.5 hours on the bus. It was a lot of bus time.
The kids performed their final concert at our home church that night. God was glorified through what they did that night. I had my breaking point when the seniors were brought on stage. I love that group of kids and sure am going to miss them next year. I'm excited to see what God is going to do in their lives next.
As promised, here's what God did shortly after the last post was written. As our students were singing in the concert that night, I recieved a text. During the concerts, I normally ignore my phone, but this time I checked it. It was my realtor telling me we had an offer on my house! She asked me to call her and explained the offer was low, but we could counter. That boy and I discussed it and opted to counter back full price and offer to pay 1/2 of their requested closing costs. It was Thursday morning after we sang at the Basilica, that I recieved a text stating that they had accepted my counter offer!!! It put us at losing the least amount of money possible. God has been so good to us in our housing situations. It's been in the PERFECT timing. All of this, of course, is riding on the home inspection. This will happen tomorrow evening. I'm a little nervous, but God's seen us to this point, so He'll see us through this part too.
I hope you will forgive my lack of crafty postings. My craft room is mostly packed up and the furniture isn't put together in the new room yet. I'm hoping to get a couple more wedding crafts completed soon. Quite frankly, packing and wedding planning are trumping the fun crafts right now.
I hope you all have an enjoyable Easter weekend. Don't forget the real reason we celebrate. Jesus Christ came, died on the cross, rose again the 3rd day to give us eternal life with Him. This is something we should always be celebrating!
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