Whirlwind Weekend

Saturday morning we hit the road early.  We were headed to Word of Life Bible Institute in New York for Rachel's graduation.

I booked a 10 person cottage on one of Word of Life's campgrounds.  Three bedrooms, one bathroom, full kitchen and living room. Right on the lake.  It was perfect for the nine of us - Tim and I, Lindsay, Sarah, Kyle, Rachel, Wes, and my mom and dad.  We also ate most of our meals on campus.

Tim took this photo of three of our beautiful daughters Saturday after dinner.

The first event was Baccalaureate Saturday evening.

There was a big thunderstorm Saturday late afternoon, and it continued into the evening.  During Baccalaureate the power went out briefly.  Fortunately everything booted back up pretty quickly.

After the service, the storm having cleared, there was a fabulous fireworks show on campus!  The other cabins on the lake got to enjoy it as well!  

 My photo is not a good one!

We were all up bright and early Sunday morning for breakfast on campus, then back to our cabin to dress for graduation, which started at 10:00am. 

The first year class was 208 students and the second year class was 89 students for a grand total of 297 students!

Rachel and her friend RJ are at the end of this video...

There was music, some readings, a message by the head of Word of Life ministries.

I liked this challenge.  It good for all of us!

One cool thing that they did was allow the students to sit in any order they wanted to.  They had a card with their name on it and the Dean of Students read it aloud.

They live streamed the graduation, so our daughter Emma and our son Nate and his family were able to watch, too!  We had some other friends who ended up home on a Sunday morning who watched the graduation, also!  So fun!

 We are so proud of Rachel.  She was challenged this year.  She's not a natural writer, and she had essays, and research papers required.  She loves her people and had to be away.  She missed her boyfriend Wes, but they video chatted every evening.  She grew stronger in her faith this last year.  We are also proud that she graduated with high honors academically!

Tim and I met at a Bible School and having had that Biblical foundation and focus on ministry we see the great value in taking a year or two of concentrated study of the Bible.

 I'm so glad that Lindsay and my parents were able to come for the weekend, too!

After the graduation lunch, Tim and I, along with Lindsay and my parents took the ferry over Lake Champlain and spent some time in Vermont.  

We gave thanks to God for how he keeps us safe on the road.  We've rarely had any issues with vehicles on all our many road trips.  This trip, we had a flat tire, and one vehicle ran out of gas!  But it all worked out just fine, and we were safe, and made it home in the early evening yesterday.

 Here are Tim and I after dinner on the way home yesterday.  Proud, happy, and tired. {grin}


This morning we are all back to our routine.  I took Sarah to work this morning with a beautiful sunrise, and what we were unable to capture well in the photo is that just to the right and at the top of the sun was a hot air balloon!  What a beautiful sight!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too.  I'll be around to visit your blogs, or see you on Instagram!