An Amazing Weekend!

I just had the best weekend. As some of you know, my husband and I headed over to the other side of the state to meet with my blogging friend, Melanie. Her and I met in May, thru the blogging world. I was so drawn to her from the very start because of her genuine love for the Lord and her tender heart in sharing her faith.

It was amazing because the more we learned about each other, the more we found we had in common. SO MANY THINGS!! It is hard to explain how we connected on a spiritual level - but we have had so many similiar experiences that I can just really understand where she is coming from.

Anyway, when she told me she was coming to IN with her husband and friends, to lead worship at a church - I was so excited! I was finally going to get to meet my friend, whom I had already come to love, face to face.

Now I am really blessed with the husband I have, because he did not know these people at all - He has not yet caught the blogging fever - but still was willing to go spend the weekend with total strangers. I can tell you, he was NOT disappointed. We had the best time!

We started off going to their hotel room and meeting them and the couple they came with. We sat and chatted for a little bit. Then the minister of the church where they were to sing today, came and got us and took us to his house for a cook-out. So we head off to his house and are greeted with big hugs and smiles from his wife. This woman was truly amazing. She was so genuine and full of God's love. She has food spread all over the kitchen and the four of us women dug in and came up with a pretty amazing dinner. Grilled chicken breasts, grilled veggies, salad, homemade salsa, and guacamole etc. It was quite the spread. But the best part was hearing her share what the Lord has done in her life. I could have sat and listened to her for hours. Anyway, it was a great evening of fellowship and getting to know one another. Food! Friends! Laughter! Faith! I could not have imagined a better evening.

Today we got to go to church and be blessed by some amazingly talented people. Melanie has the most beautiful voice! She did such a good job leading worship and getting our hearts ready to receive the message. Her husband Frank is one cool dude! You should hear him on the sax! So passionate! I loved it! And I cannot even describe the talent of our new friend Wayne. He loves jazz music and I have never seen someone play the guitar like he does - he is awesome! So the worship time was simply amazing and then the message - wow - can Larry teach the Word of God! We definitely got filled up this morning.

We had a delicious dinner afterward, at Applebees and got to enjoy more time together before we each headed off in our different directions. It was hard to say goodbye. We took lots of pictures, which Melanie will have to post on her blog because I don't know how yet. :) But I have to say the coolest part for me is the fact that we were all virtually strangers - and yet the bond between us was strong because of Jesus. It was not like being with strangers at all, but like being with family - a family for eternity. How cool is that?

I would have never imagined back in May, when we started blogging and emailing, that God would bring Melanie all the way to my state to sing at a church and allow us to meet. He truely is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Thank you Jesus, I will always cherish the memories of this weekend.