God's Work Our Hands, Nashville Here We Come!

Today was an incredible day of travel, covering four states. We traveled through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and finally arrived in Tennessee. It was very exciting to watch all of our Zion youth get so excited about arriving at Tennessee. Some were even in tears as we drove over the border! We were greeted by some very welcoming people, our discipleship guides.

When we arrived at the church, we were greeted by the fantastic smell of barbecued chicken on the grill. However due to the fact that it was in the freezer, that they thought was a refrigerator, the cooking time was greatly increased. And that is an understatement.... However we now have a new favorite drink, peach iced tea.

But let me back up to our incredible worship service/potluck at our host church, Christ Lutheran in St. Louis. That was definitely a high for not only the adults in the group but also for many of our youth. The service was very much tailored for a mission trip group, talking about fear versus hope and stepping out into the unknown. We really felt that the service was speaking to us all. And the welcoming of our host church was incredible with not only fantastic food to get us going with full stomachs but also the way all of the families treated all of us. It was truly a God present moment.

Playing instruments in worship

Eating the wonderful food at the Christ Lutheran potluck! They even invited us to sing in worship this morning, too!

Tonight, after a much later supper, we gathered for the meetings to go over all the rules and talk about the schedule for tomorrow.  Then we played some games with her new friends from Atlanta and we all received the group that we would be going with and we all know where we are going to be serving the city of Nashville and our amazing God.  Thanks so much for all your prayers for safe travel and the love that we still feel from the great state of Minnesota and the fantastic town of Stewie!

Playing with our new Atlanta friends. Can't wait to get to know them.

(A few highlights from Mackenzie and Natalie) It was an incredible adventure of trying to have Dan and Anna stay together in the heavy traffic. We not only had the challenge with the multiple cars, motorcycles, and crazy drivers to deal with, we also had to deal with lack of cell phone coverage for communication purposes.  Dan drives fairly fast, but not faster than all the traffic, and Anna just doesn't seem to keep up at all. We kind of refer to her as the grandma driver.  It was a long day of driving, but we are here safely and are looking forward to a great day tomorrow.