East Coast Summer

One of the beauties of our job is that we get to travel...a lot. About a week ago we began our road trip to Ocean City, NJ, and life has not slowed down since we got here. We drove with Brandon and Amy, good friends of ours that we spent last summer with. After stopping at Notre Dame in Indiana (Ben and Brandon in front of 'touchdown Jesus), and spending our first night somewhere outside of Toledo in a not-so-worth-the-low-price-hotel, we headed for Gettysburg, PA. Pennsylvania is by far the best state I've ever driven through. It's so beautiful! The mountains are an enjoyable drive, even in the dark, which makes it a little more adventurous.

We toured Gettysburg in the rain, imagining what it must have been like to experience the whole thing. I wish I would have appreciated history more and paid attention in school, but Brandon acted as our encyclopedia, recalling dates and events from the civil war.

Despite our best efforts to arrive in Ocean City 'early', we showed up at 9pm to get our keys and unpack our cars. Our house has the biggest living area, so we were deemed the hosts of all staff meetings. It's a mixed blessing, but the positives have far outweighed the negatives. It's fun to have everyone over, and we never have to worry about being late! Our week has been full of staff meetings with training and a time for everyone to share their story of beginning a relationship with God. It's the best way to get to know 40 different people in a single week. I have been blown away at some of the lives in the room that God has shaped and is now using for His purposes. So many have experienced death of loved ones, and just really hard things that I can't relate with. But their hope in Christ exceeds the difficult things they have seen and known, and they are willing to be used to bring the truth of the gospel to others so they too can find hope. What an exciting summer we have ahead of us! We have the names of our students and we can't wait to meet them this week. We will each be working with four from around the country. There are also a few students from Iowa that are coming so it will be fun to see them.

Tomorrow we have the day off before students show up on Tuesday, so Ben and I are going to explore the local shops and eateries and walk along the boardwalk. I'm going to try to keep my mind off of my job, which is House Manager, along with another staff member. We have a lot of responsibilities in this first week as we will be leading our work day at The Ambassador's Inn-an old boarding house that was bought for our project 46 years ago and needs a good Spring cleaning this time of year, as it's not used for anything else. The Ambassador houses 80 students and the rest stay in a house down the street that's affectionately called "The Mansion". (We live down the street in a rented house).

Well this is long enough. It's late so it was more factual than anything, but hopefully it was fun to read. Here's a view from The Ambassador. The streets are lined with these huge beach houses for miles and miles. I apologize for the choppy text and randomly placed pictures-I'll master these layout skills some day!