June 12 - 4am began the wonderful adventure of travelling by airplane to Pittsburg, PA to meet up with Lynn and Heather, who also began their trip at the same time by car. They met me in the airport when I arrived. We loaded the car and headed to an Italian restaurant to meet up with an old school mate of Lynn's. The food was DELICIOUS, and Lynn's friend was a hoot!! I was totally stuffed! Then we decided to go to down town Pittsburg to ride the Monongahela Incline Plane. The ride to the top of the mountain only took a few minutes, but looking at the steep incline made me alittle woosie. But O the view from the top!! We could see the whole city! So big, so beautiful!! We called it the city of Bridges!! Every where you looked, bridges. Definitely worth pushing through the woosies.
Pittsburg is not a city for the navigationally challenged...or faint of heart. Even the GPS chick couldn't keep up with the weaving and winding of the roads. We made it to the hotel around 4pm, freshened up and rode the shuttle to the Peterson Center for the 1st evening of Beth Moore. Her message was about "The perfect storm" I thoroughly enjoyed the evening! We caught the 1st shuttle back, which was amazing with the amount of women at our hotel. Then we headed across the street to a tiny restaurant called Zarra's. Thought we might grab a burger, but it too was Italian. We opted to sit out on the patio, the night was gorgeous and a quaint fire was burning in the outdoor fire place and we each ordered a slice of cheese cake. It took FOREVER...and we started kidding about it being frozen, and they were probably nuking it, and FINALLY they showed up, I took my first bite and asked Lynn and Heather if their cheese cake was hot...and we just cracked up laughing! Indeed that was exactly what they had done! Parts were hot, parts were cold.
We went back to the hotel and Lynn and Heather headed up, while I lingered behind and it wasn't but a few minutes they called my cell phone, and told me there were women stuck in the elevator..alarms going off. They decided to try the stairwell, and got to the top of the stairs and the door was locked, went back down and the door they went in locked behind them. They banged on the door until someone heard them and got them out. They proceeded up 6 flights of stairs, and right after they got to the room, tired and winded, I got there. They were stunned, but apparently it was all fixed and I got right on the elevator and up I went! It didn't take us long at all to fall asleep.
June 13 - got up around 5:30 and packed all up, spiffed all up and went down to have breakfast. It was really good, ate outside, it was a beautiful morning! Then off to the Peterson center for part two of "The perfect storm". The morning began with a recognition of 3 birthday's, then...the drummer proposed to his girlfriend on Stage in front of 5000 women..you should've heard the roar!! She said yes!! The message Beth taught, spoke so strongly to me...it was totally incredible, I knew I was supposed to be in Pittsburg at that exact place, just to receive it! Thank you Jesus!
We left right after they dismissed us, and it took us 1hr to get out of Pittsburg, with all the traffic.
When we hit Harrisburg, we decided to do some sight seeing! All the years I lived in Pennsylvania, I had never been to the capitol. What a beautiful city! The streets in Harrisburg are lined with churches...very old, beautiful churches..the very foundation of the city itself. It was also incredible to see "In God we trust" on the entry columns to the steps up to the building itself. On the back of a bench, built into the structure was in scripted with "There is a time to pray, and a time to fight", and another "May God preserve the Constitution and the Union", and another "Liberty and life are the gifts of Heaven". Made you just want to say "YES!!" We got home in Harleysville about 8:30pm.
Sunday June 14, we went to Lynn and Marty's church service, which was totally awesome! I am so glad they found a wonderful church to call home! The message ended with the same scripture I had picked for my memory verse! 2 Cor. 10: 5. Yes, I believe with my whole heart God ordained my steps to be in Pittsburg, and Harleysville that very weekend! Thank you Jesus!! Dad and Carolyn joined us around 2pm and stayed until 11pm. We had an incredible visit!! I just thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip. From start to finish! Luke 1:45 - Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! My new memory verse for June 15! Thank you Lynn for having me!
Changes, Challenges and unknowns imploded our work world on July 8. It came as a mighty blow! Minds were whirling, wondering...emotions were extremely high. Total reorganization of our world as we have always known it. HUGE Change, Huge Challenges.
