Glory Days

Alas! We have arrived in Edmonton! Eeeep!  And today is our day of rest after 4 days of driving.    Today we will have baths, we will read, we will eat and probably sneak in another shower, lounge and rest and lounge and read some more.  Tomorrow is another long drive, and then we work.  5 days on, one day off (repeat).  I thought since I've been capturing moments along the way, I will share from the beginning....

Here is us celebrating after a battle of wills, with a stubborn pair of rusted old screws, holding hostage a licence plate imperative for our trailer's drive back home from Penetanguishene.  Little did we know in this picture that we would meet our first (of many) mother trucker of hills.  So what does any rookie standard driver, sans experience do while confronting a steep incline you ask?  Well, you reverse into a smallish ditch, you crank the wheel and then you roll the heck back down the hill, swearing to avoid all hills from that day forth.    

Enter, Peniel. Or 'Penny' for short.  She's a beaut.  And she is our pre-loved summer home.  'Peniel' means 'face of God'.  And while this old girl rested outside for many years, she will actually be our saving grace on this trip, as it means we do not have to sleep in a tent for three whole months!  eeep!  When we opened her up for the first time though, I may or may not have doubted her potential as she had a lot of holes and needed repairs.  With many gracious hands, we wrestled with her walls till she had no choice but to be a blessing and mighty home!  Sewing holy holes anew, repairing tricky door locks, ripped screens and scrubbing molded vinyl squeaky clean, Penny has been restored with much much love.  When we look at Penny she will truly beam the face of God because she has been made new by the body of Christ (which is you kind friends), so thanks for being part of a holy restoration!  

I also looked up where Peniel comes from, and for those that are curious, look through Gen 30:32.  Peniel is the name Jacob gives the place where he wrestles with the Lord, unwilling to let him go until the Lord blesses Jacob.  He names this spot of transformation and blessing 'Peniel' because it is where he "saw God face to face".  My prayer for this adventure is that we encounter Christ in all things, face to face, eyes open, determined to see and know all of God's blessings.

Day 1 blessings:  Firstly, our friends came early in the morning to send us off on our way.  This entailed gifts of 90 hand sewn cutie envelopes with letters for each day we are gone (Goodness knows we are loved muchly!). Cait hand wrote ALL of our driving directions!  What a dedicated driving companion!  Upon our arrival at the boarder, we realized (or should i say Cait realized) that my passport  was expired!  Three cars away from border patrol, we actually thought we'd had to turn around and go home, but by the grace of God alone, our guard was more concerned with the fruit we had in the car (4 apples...tehe) and needless to say we crossed the border just fine.  After that....easy breazy!  Welcome Cait and Jussie to America!                                                                                                

Later that evening when we got to Chicago, we ate at the all American, Denny's (whoot whoot) which was an exciting first for me!  Denny's taught us two main things.  That the fine people from Illinois don't eat plum sauce with chicken fingers (wtf?) and even more shockingly don't even know what plum sauce was! *Gasp* aaaand secondly, they got it bad for bacon!  Needless to say, we did not indulge.

Day 2:  Who knew driving could be so fun!

 Day 3.  Enter Rob, our fellow road tripper extroardinaire and crew member.  

                                          

The prairies are something one must definitely see in a lifetime.   So so beautiful.  Rolling through this part of Canada was one of my favourite parts, we sang loud, we talked passionately and we were treated to one of our fav radio program's with Jian!  On this particular day, he spoke about all the chaos happening in the news as of late...majority governments, a death of a political figure, exciting hockey games blah blah blah.  His point was, that he felt over burdened with news, that the airwaves were completely saturated with information and that he just wanted and needed to slow down and take a breadth and give people a gift of silence for a change.   And then he did just that. he took a long, silent and beautiful breadth on national radio and it was glorious.

Looking out over the prairies, listening to beautiful silence was so fitting because to me the prairies seem almost like a visual breath.  The prairies are the absence of everything chaotic with it's vast and open spaces and empty roads that go for miles and miles.  It's in the nothingness of the prairies that make them so grand, and breathing in all this openness was surly a gift of God's abiding glory.

You can never take too many pictures of God's glory.  Don't worry Steve, these ones are sans colour correction :) 

                            

    

   

And this brings us to where I am now.  Plunked on the floor, enjoying this peaceful day.  Love you all, onward and upward and to Prince George we go!  85 days left.