It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the road three weeks, and only have about a week left. We have three more Virginia stops, then Chicago, and lastly Wisconsin. It has been a joy and delight to meet many of you, and see those whom we have met on previous trips. After we finish a conference and climb into the van, we love to talk and share about the families we talked with.
We have three conferences to give a report on. We had a surprise at the Hartford, Connecticut conference. A large family, who had attended the Rhode Island weekend, showed up in Connecticut! We were excited to be able to have some more time to fellowship with the family. The coordinator for the conference had worked very hard on publicity. We were blessed by those who attended.
Dad had been praying about what route to take from Connecticut to New Jersey. He had wanted to go a longer route to avoid New York City and the traffic. I must confess that most of us children were hoping to see the more “scenic” route, but we knew the Lord would direct Dad. Tuesday morning, Dad felt led to go the direct route, so we set out on our adventure. As we drove around New York City, in the Bronx area, we saw smoke. We thought it was a fire, and as we crossed a bridge, one of the children exclaimed they saw flames! Right near the opposite side of the interstate, flames were shooting out of a top-story apartment window. The fire truck had just arrived on the scene, and we saw firemen scaling the fire-escape stairs. Christopher took some pictures as we went by, and upon looking at the pictures, we saw there was actually a lady holding a baby only one story up and two windows away. It was a sobering scene. We prayed for those involved in the fire.
This is a zoomed in picture where you can see the lady and a baby to the left of the fire, one story up.
In New Jersey, Tuesday evening, Mom had her first experience giving her session in a tent. Actually, it wasn’t the sort of tent you might think of, and except for the ceiling and the dimmer lighting, you wouldn’t know you were in a tent, as it was air-conditioned, and looked perfectly normal inside. I talked with a sweet family (they posted a comment recently on the blog) who had been missionaries to the Bronx area.
Wednesday we drove to Harrisonburg. We enjoyed the incredible scenery of flowing streams, green hills, and just God’s Creation in general. When we filled up with diesel that evening, Dad had quite a talk with the man at the station. I know Dad has several things he’d like to post on when he has time.
Thursday we spent mainly in the hotel, doing catch up things. Our set up seemed to go smoothly last night, even after changing locations of our book tables. I think the set up is going faster, and we also had help :-). One highlight for me last night was meeting a sweet mom and her girls of whom we have known for many years via e-mail. They drove from West Virginia. We can’t tell you how incredibly blessed we are to talk to each one of you.
Jesse is a faithful “trucker” of our books and tubs for the book table.
We are looking forward to the Christ-Led Family Conference in Norfolk tonight and tomorrow. Thank you for praying for us. Several more have come down with colds, but the colds have been very light, which is a blessing!
Twelve conferences done, five left to go!
Only for Jesus,
Sarah
Anna offered to watch a little boy so his mother could listen to the session. Here John is with the little guy. He was very cute!
Our family usually sings three songs after Dad and Mom’s Hearts session on single-evening conferences.
Wow! God has taken your family so far from home! I am from the Bronx myself (left NYC in 1999 when I was 25) and it really touched my heart that you were not afraid to drive through the Bronx as so many people are and that your van was able to minister about families for Jesus! Thank you also for praying for that woman and baby. God put you at the right place and the right time for his glory and prayers.
Wanda
Yikes! Lookie at all those isntruments! LOL!