Summer Travels

Hey everyone!
The countdown is on... 12 days till I fly back to Uganda!

I spent the last month traveling all over the place. First stop: my dear friend Brenda Gladfelter's wedding to her Northern Irishman, Stephen McCollum. Brenda and I have been friends since we were awkward little kids running around making fairy houses at White Lake. Stephen is a quality guy and I'm so glad to invite him into the family :) Their wedding was beautiful and I enjoyed helping Mr. G in the kitchen, along with Kathryn and Stasia. I don't know when I'll ever get used to her being Mrs. McCollum though! Stasia, Kathryn and I stayed with Jenny and Jason Panella for a couple days, which was a fantastically good time, although poor Jenny had just returned from her mission trip to France and was completely jetlagged!

The day after the wedding I met up with my friends Andrew, Adam and Rachel, and we camped our way to the International Conference in Marion, Indiana. We stayed at KOA's both nights so we weren't roughing it too much, but it was a ton of fun. We went to Cedar Point (although the rain closed most of the big rides!! sadness) and went to see The Dark Knight Rises at a drive-in movie theater. Besides a leaky tent that didn't quite survive the thunderstorms one night, the trip was a great success. So glad I spent that time with friends instead of just driving straight out to the conference!

The RP International Conference was held at Indiana Wesleyan University, a really beautiful campus. Joel Beeke was the main speaker. Amazingly, he gave all his lectures that week despite the fact that his mother passed away the Monday morning of the conference. His talks and the breakout sessions were great. I tended to go to all the missions talks... I can't help myself :P Jim and Jenny Knox shared about Karamoja, and I also got to hear a presentation on Cush4Christ. So encouraged to hear how the Lord is blessing so many ministries around the world!

One of the difficult parts of the conference was simply that there were SO MANY PEOPLE. Over 2,200 RPs = craziness. So many times I'd see someone as I was on my way somewhere and say, "We'll catch up later!" never to see them again. I did get to spend a lot of quality time with old and new friends. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life! I'm looking forward to the next stateside conference in 2016 (I'll be 28 -- WHAT).

At the end of the conference, 11 of us began the journey to White Lake Covenanter Camp in Bob Allmond's 15-passenger van. White Lake deserves its own post :)