Saturday, June 11, 2005

Please scroll down to view photos from today!

Today we met at church at 6:00 a.m.  Special thanks to the many parents and other church friends who gathered at such an early hour on Saturday morning to share in devotions with us and to see us off!  We were on the road for about 12 hours, and arrived safely at the Best Western Jackson North Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi.  Hotel phone if you need to reach us tonight is 601-956-8686.  We passed through parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi on our journey so far, making it a five state day!  The journey was smooth in every detail; we consumed a truly impressive quantity of cookies and other snacks, sang together, talked a lot, and just had a good time traveling and getting to know each other better.  We had supper at Shoney's, followed by an evening meeting and closing prayer by one of the youth.

We did pass a lot of rice "paddies" on the way here, which is unusual.  According to what I have been able to find out, rice is one of the major crops in Mississippi; it is just right for ground with a lot of clay in it, since the rice must grow in standing shallow water.  And the United States is a significant exporter of rice TO CHINA!  You'd think that the rice we eat comes from the orient, but it turns out that their rice is likely to say, in tiny writing on each little kernel, "Made in America."  :-)

Tomorrow we plan to worship at the Anderson United Methodist Church and we hope to meet with their youth group following the service.  It's a great church; you can see their website at:  http://www.andersonchurch.org/index.html

We understand from the most recent weather reports that the potential for the first hurricane of the year, Tropical Storm Arlene, has already made landfall at almost exactly the area we are going, but did not do much except temporarily knock out power, flood some coastal roadways, and bring rain.  It did inconvenience numerous people in the area temporarily, but it sounds like it will not negatively impact our trip in any way, or pose any kind of problem for us.  In fact, it probably helped give us a great traveling day today (cloudy and reasonably cool but very little rain).  The Sunday morning forecasts are calling for sunshine and temperatures warming into the 80's, with very little chance of rain for the next day or two at least!  So the storm is OVER, at least here, and we will press onward this morning... 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your prayer support today and tomorrow as we continue on to Mobile, Alabama after church tomorrow.

 

Enjoy the Pictures!
 

 

   
    Notes from the youth:  "Mom and Dad, we made it. Love you, Kaelee.
   
 

  Today's scriptures included Psalm 136 (to see an example of the "Call and Response" style of worship) and Matthew 8:23-27 (Jesus calms a storm).  We invite you to read Matthew 8:23-27 and consider the many ways today that God still seeks to "calm the waters" in the storms of life, and how your mission in life, as well as our mission trip, are ways in which God is still working this mission out!