Our First Blog Post

Well, we've been at Lisbon for a week and a half now, and we've finally got a blog going. We've set this up so that we can keep in touch with our friends and let them know how the summer's going for us. So far...

Well, first of all we left Houghton a week ago Saturday. That was an adventure and a half, and I don't mean the good kind. All of our packing and transporting our stuff took HOURS longer than we thought it would. We intended to arrive at Lisbon at 5:00 pm. We left Houghton at 5:30. The car was packed so full that Hilary was driving, because her legs are shorter and it made more room. Well, after we ran into a parade and ran around the route for almost an hour trying to find SOMEONE who could give us directions (note to the world: Parade routes should NOT block important highway junctions) Hilary was too shaken and upset to drive anymore. So guess who had to drive with his legs all cramped up? You guessed it, Dan did!

We FINALLY found someone who could tell us how to get where we needed to go, and we got back on the road and headed for McDonald's, the only restaurant that we knew where it was on our journey. We were STARVING by that point, only to find out that... this particular Ronald only accepts cash. So we backtracked to an ATM, got cash, and finally got our food. Safe at last, right? WRONG. Things continued to go badly for us, as Hilary was even clumsy enough to spill salt in her Sprite. Gross!

Somewhere around 11:30 at night, we finally pulled into the parking lot of the church that will be home sweet home for us for the next ten weeks. And it will be a home for us. Even though we're living in a Sunday School classroom that has been turned into an apartment, it is one of the most homey places we've been. For one thing, the people here are amazingly welcoming and friendly. For another, they decorated this place better than our own apartment is decorated. All the colors even match!

Our time here has gone much better than our trip here. Monday we spent acclimating and unpacking, but Tuesday was our first youth meeting. Yikes! There were about 18 or so youth, and the first meeting was very low key. We shared our testimonies and had pizza. We are getting to know most of the youth by name, and are so excited to serve here. They seem like a good group... no rotten apples. They are very fun loving. We feel like God is calling us to help them go deeper, and with His help we want to do so. We've decided to focus on "story" as our theme for the summer. We want to teach them that they each have their own unique story and place in God's kingdom. We'll be using Jesus' parables to help us acheive that, starting tonight with the Good Samaritan.

We've also gotten involved with many other things going on around the church. Hilary helped out with MOPS (that's mothers of preschoolers) one morning as a glorified jungle gym. Who would have thought that three preschoolers could take her down? We've also helped the pastor's wife with a fundraiser for the local YFC, attended a young adults meeting, and helped out with VBS planning. This church, for its small size, has a ton of activities going on. Hilary has also gone to a Wesleyan Women's meeting and a prayer group, and that doesn't even touch the surface of some of the other things this church has to offer. There is truly something for everyone. We feel very blessed to be a part of the church here. Someone said that this is a good "starter church" and that's true. We hope that we can learn so much during our time here.

We don't want to make it sound like it's all peaches and cream and roses, but so far we have had a truly blessed time. Even when Dan was very sick for several days, it was like God's hand was on us. We want to be truly honest with you, our friends, and we won't hide our struggles, but so far, praise God, they have been few.

Please pray for us as we have our first "real" youth meeting tonight and have to teach a lesson. Also, we are having a bonfire Friday night as our first event, so please pray that that will go well.

In Christ,

Dan and Hilary