Chicago

Dear Readers,
Thank you for your prayers. The weekend in Chicago was amazing, and our team learned a lot. It turned out that Devin, one of the boys in my group, was sick with flu-like symptoms on friday, so he stayed back in wheaton, while Chris, Stephanie, and I went to our hostel on the north side of chicago. The hostel was an international hostel with hundreds of rooms and a few lounges on the first floor, where we spent a lot of time talking to people. The first night we met a few people and Chris had a really good conversation with a Christian woman and man. Surprisingly, about 1/3 of the people we met were Christians. Saturday night I made spaghetti (can you believe it! i didnt burn anything!) for my group and about 5 others who ended up eating with us. People who were cooking in the kitchen sat down with us too, and we ended up at the table talking for several hours. I talked to people from australia, england, ireland, alaska, and zimbabwe. One guy that we talked to for a long time was from Holland, he was a christian who had just moved to the states a few weeks before. He was really nice, and ended up going to church with us the next day (this morning) at moody church.
All in all, it was a great weekend, we had a few really good conversations despite prior apprehensiveness, and grew together as a team and in the Lord. One of my favorite memories was praying before our meal in the hostel with people from all over the place. God has surely blessed us.

pray hard

Dear Readers,
This weekend I would really appreciate your prayers, i am on the verge of leaving for the weekend to go to chicago with Youth Hostel Ministry. This is our plunge weekend into life at hostels. Only the four of us in my little group will be going and staying at a hostel in chicago, meeting people, and showing them Christ's abounding love. Please pray for them, and for us, and for the other groups going out. Let us boldly proclaim the message.

Las Vaccaciones de Prima Vera (Spring Break!)

Spring break was so much fun. Imagine it... 6 girls in a suburban driving from Wheaton to Lakeland Florida to visit Grampa and Liz, who so generously arranged for us to stay in our own house down the street. It was so wonderful. We had many adventures, including Busch Gardens, Ft. Desoto, dolphins, sunsets, crazy raccoons, grilling dinner at the beach, playing shuffleboard, and eating lots of home grown citrus fruit. Thanks Grandpa and Liz for you loving hospitality. All of the girls had so much fun.
Also, on the way down, we were able to stop in GA. and eat an early breakfast with my dear hardworking brother David at his very own Chick-fil-a. And then on the way back up to Wheaton, we stopped in at Nanny and Pappa's house for a heavenly brunch and a much needed nap. We also spent two nights at Emily M's house (the redhead), who's amazing family took good care of us. We rode horses there, spent time in their hottub, ate lots of good food (there is a pattern here), and went to their church. Needless to say, I wish it could be spring break all the time.

Here are some fun pictures. The one of me on the phone is the exact moment when I found out Summer's baby is a little miss Heidi Anne!!