The Rest of the Story

Note: For those of you wonderful ladies who were at the Christ Community Church’s retreat this past weekend, Mackenzie’s post is further on down. You might want to read it first to get caught up. Here you will get the “rrrrrrrrrrest of the story”

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View from our balcony.

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Marian leading worship as the sun is about to come up over the Atlantic ………….

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THERE IT IS!!!!!!

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” I John 4:7

Well, I sure met a lot of new friends this weekend who love and have been born of God. As a speaker, I get asked to share at a variety of places: quaint country church MOPS groups, lovely ladies’ Bible studies, an event in an old church basement, a woodsy, rustic retreat center. All of these are a joy for me to do as I meet so many sweet sisters in Christ whom I can’t wait to see again in eternity. However, every once in a while, God pulls out all the stops and blesses me with not only another great group of ladies to hang out with for a while, but an awesome location to boot. This was such an event!

First, met by cheering crowd at the Philly airport….(uh, oops…guess they were there for Barack.) At any rate… Ocean side room. Balcony looking out over the rolling waves. Sunday morning worship on the beach watching the sun rise. Strolling alongside cute seaside shops spending time with my daughter and sister-in-law. Okay…..now I am feeling guilty even taking my speaking fee!!

Thank you dear Deb and Beth and Marian and the worship team and Amy and Jen and all of the others whose faces I still see but whose name tags I can’t!!!! I had a blast. The best part for me was our hour of silence. I needed that. God was in the midst of it. Remember what we talked about? He whispers. The world shouts. I heard Him this weekend about a couple of things. Thanks for drowning out the world’s noise for me so I could not just hear, but listen.

Okay…….now lest any of you out there in cyber-space think this was a perfect weekend that you wish you could have had……uh, um….it is 8:30 Monday morning. I am sitting in an old hotel in Detroit. Nothing wrong with that. However, when you realize that our plane was supposed to board last night just after 7:00 and, after one stop, get us safely to Michigan soil around 11:00 you will realize that the return trip has not matched the rest of this wonderful adventure. NOPE!!!!! Delay out of Philly…..LOOOOOOONG delay. Took off near 11:00 pm. Missed our connection. Got a hotel. Had to have luggage pulled from the plane for sister-in-law’s meds and c-pap machine and daughter’s lip gloss (just kidding). More waiting in an airport. Checked into hotel at nearly 2:00 am AFTER waiting over a half hour for a shuttle bus in the chilly Michigan air. Had to share bed with tossing daughter. Woken up by sister-in-law’s cell phone alerting her that she had a new message—at 4: 23 am!!!!!!! Dozed some more. Gave up. Got up. Read my Bible. Updated this. Now going to call home to tell principle of our homeschool (dear dad) what the boys need to start on. Realizing he’ll probably call a snow day (in April) and let them eat junk and play X-box! Now scheduled to fly out at noon, land at 12:46 pm. Drive over an hour home. Arrive 16 hours late and a day behind schedule.

But God……….He planned it. He approved it. And I know He ordained it. For proof I only needed to overhear my sister-in-law encouraging a beautiful, bald, scarf-donning woman during that annoying wait in the Philly airport. She was on her way to Chicago to seek treatment for her cancer. It was a God appointment I am glad we did not miss. My sister-in-law is a breast cancer survivor and an upbeat, positive encourager for those who feel as if they have lost all hope. When she told that precious gal that she herself is approaching her 6 year anniversary of her diagnosis—cancer free, full head of gorgeous red hair and sporting an assuring, wide smile—it imparted hope to this women who smiled right back.

Thanks God for letting me see you work. It was worth the wait.

Sweet, sleep-deprived blessings,

Karen

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