What a great weekend...

John and I had such a great weekend! We left Saturday morning for Goshen, Indiana. The weather was beautiful...sunny but not too hot. We listened to my Mark Schultz CD's all the way up there. When we finally reached Goshen, we used our Yahoo map to find the hotel...I'd reserved it through Travelocity. The map looked pretty easy to read, but when we reached the street that it showed, we drove into a really seedy section of town and a dead-end street! So we headed back out the way we came and finally found the Holiday Inn Express. It was a really nice place and the manager was very friendly and helpful. He said a lot of folks had gotten lost with those internet maps but they didn't know how to get Yahoo to correct the error. Anyway...at least we arrived! After a little rest, we headed to Middlebury and supper at the Essen Haus. Oh those Amish chicken and noodles are sooo good. We shopped in the stores for awhile and found a couple of cute gifts for Betsy's birthday. Of course I always find things for her...it's so fun to shop for a baby! We bought some apple butter to bring home to my co-workers, Bonnie and LaDonna. We also found some yummy pecan rolls and had them the next morning for our breakfast in our room. Sunday we drove to Winona Lake for a little reminiscing about the days we had kids in college there. We have really wonderful memories of the 9 years the kids were there...it seems impossible that they've both been out of college for so long! We had a wonderful lunch at the Boathouse and sat out on the deck and watched the ducks and skiers while we dined. I had great Bruschetta and a spinach salad. John enjoyed their chicken salad. After lunch we wandered down to the lake and watched the gulls and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. We sat right near the boathouse that Joel lived in during one of his years at Grace. It was right on the water so he had quite a view that year. We decided to drive back to Goshen to be there in plenty of time for the concert. By that time it started to get really hot and I got really sleepy. We arrived just in time to be detoured by the 4-H parade so we sat and dozed until we could get out to the fairgrounds. I was so thankful to have my handicapped placard...we were able to park close to the fairgrounds. As it was I had to walk way too much that day and I'm still feeling the aches today. But it was worth it. The concert was amazing! Mark seemed so authentic and humble. He told many of the stories behind his songs and that made them even more special. He also sang "Letters from War" as a tribute to the veterans. He had all the veterans stand...so John stood...and the audience really showed their appreciation to those who have fought and died for our freedom. It was deeply moving. John and I had tears through the whole concert because each song touches a tender spot in your heart. He sang several worship songs with the whole crowd. It just gave me chills to hear those thousands of voices lifting praises to God in the open air with the birds flying over and knowing that all those folks out riding the carnival rides were getting witnessed to through the singing. The band was so loud that the drums felt like your heart beating...your whole body could feel the music! It was so awesome. When we first got seated, John said he hoped the concert wouldn't last long so we could get started home before dark. When it was over he was in tears and said he wished it would have gone on for hours. He actually said he would have driven 500 miles if he'd known we were going to experience such an intense worship experience. And the great thing about it was that Mark Schultz gave God all the glory!