Thoughts and feelings experienced as we left Nebraska.

We wanted to add a little more about our time spent in Nebraska before we left for Ohio. As we stated earlier, we very much enjoyed the time we spent with our new friends, the Mertzweillers. Jeff enjoyed helping Stephen with the "manly" chores needed to prepare for camp, and Tonya laughed and laughed with Ruthie as they did some of the ladies chores together. Linda provided wonderful meals for us and we enjoyed their company as we ate together. David took all of us fishing at a beautiful lake (can't remember the name of it). We were happy to see Shari while we were there too. She was the first one we met from their family back in January when she drove down to Colorado Springs to surprise her cousin (Judy Hunt) on her 18th birthday. They are an incredible family - and if they have any flaws, we didn't see them!

We had a hard time leaving Mitchell because the morning we were to leave, several members of our church family had arrived and wanted to see us before we left for the summer. Pastor Derald and Sister Kim, their daughter - Judy, Kim's mom - Joan, and Sister Carol had arrived the evening before and Nathan and Haley drove very late into the night so they could make it in time to see us. We felt so loved and it was VERY hard to leave. We had planned to leave early in the morning, but we were still trying to pack bags during breakfast. It's hard to pack bags and clean when there is a crowd of visitors standing outside your door! By lunch time we were finally packed and ready to go, but they didn't want to say goodbye yet, so they "twisted our hearts" into staying for lunch. Notice we didn't say "arms", because they weren't forceful with it. They genuinely wanted us to stay and that was too hard to resist. So, we were able to enjoy our last meal cooked by Kim Hunt! It was funny because different ones (like Pastor Derald and Sister Carol) had already said goodbye to us two times and when they saw us in the lunch line, they laughed. It made us feel so good to know that our church family loves us that much. Other people from our church who weren't able to make it to camp yet called us on our cell phones as well.

Thank you, Lord, for our loving Christian family! And thank you for leading us to this church!


Be Disciples.