THE Trip

Lee and I left Baltimore at 6pm on Friday the 28th after Elijah Magee's funeral. The Funeral was a blessing. It was hard though. I mean what funeral is easy? Lee, Summer, Sophie and I played "It is well with my soul", " Great is Thy Faithfulness", and "Lord I lift Your name on High". The Lord was with us all during it. Before the service started I walked around the grounds reading the ages on some of the memorial plates. As I read some the the younger ages I thought about all the other families. I wondered if they had the Lord with them? How could anyone go through this type of grief without some sort of hope, hope to see the Master's plan, hope to see them again one day, hope for peace and comfort in the midst of the storm. Already I am seeing the many ways the Lord has used the Magee's sacrifice for His glory."Unless a kernel of wheat fall...."





All of our relatives said that 95 would be horrible but it wasn't too bad and Lee and I figured out how to trip my odometer. Which made following google directions much easier for someone like me! I'm getting better though. We made it to New Jersey, with no problems by the way, and arrived at The G's (Glendinnings) Uncle Roger's house around 8. We spent the rest of the evening playing games, watching movies, and just hanging out. So fun!


In the morning we left for the train station and made it to NYC in time to have lunch in Greewhich. From there we hit just about every tourist spot possible.


-Brooklyn Heights Promenade


-Times Square


-Empire State Building


-Rockefeller Plaza


-St. Patrick's Cathedral



-Central Park (including the various and sundry places enclosed therein)


Surprisingly it wasn't crowded until later in the evening. Danny and Becky took us to the train station so they could show us which one we needed to take back as they were staying later for a show. Danny handed me a copy of the directions so we could get back to his uncles and I shoved it in my pocket to look at later on the train. Big mistake! While we waited for the train we decided to get a dozen doughnuts with the money Daddy Danny had given us ( Thanks so much!!!) and between the 4 of us we ate them all!


The train ride was pretty quiet since we were all pretty tired. I decided to pull out the directions and look them over. That's when I realized instead of directions from the train station to Uncle Rogers they were from Uncle Rogers to the train station! We all thought we would be able to figure it out so we didn't bother Danny or Uncle Roger. When we got to our car we decided to soap Danny's car. It turned out great! We wrote "Danny's NYC Tours. Cheap is free!" In hindsight we should have written "For Sale. Cheap!!" and add his cell number. Oh well, I just wish we had pictures of it! Then we left and drove around for 45 minutes trying to figure out where we were. "I think I recognize that road name..... oh, that's on the directions....... didn't we already pass that?" Many U-turns later and a call to Uncle Roger and we made it back. Everyone agreed that getting lost was one of the best parts of the trip!

Davy, Dusty, Lee and I left the next morning. The ride home was fun but pretty uneventful except for a quick stop at roosevelt inlet in Delware. All the guys spent that night, the 30th, at the pig pen- I mean, Bachelor Pad in OC.

The next day we went to Cold Stone Ice Cream and Old Pro putt-putt. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard on a putt-putt course. We went to our church's New Years party later that day. It was awesome. All of the youth led worship and then we prayed for people for about an hour and a half in a prayer tunnel. So many seeds were planted in peoples hearts. It is so amazing that such a holy God chooses to use such ordinary people, like us youth, to speak His words to His children. He really is incredable. I am so excited to see what He will do with 2008. So much is happening. I am really believing He will work all things out for His glory and honor, not mine. There are so many puzzle pieces.... I don't always understand but I am learning to trust and trust joyfully. As the Jason Upton song says, "Give me one reason to doubt Him." I really have no reason to doubt. Even through the hard times He has proven that He knows what He is doing and that He has a bigger plan than what I can see in the darkness of my pain.-Monika