| | Last week, we went on a road trip to Virginia and Maryland with six of the girls from our church. It was beautiful and we were very happy to take our girls with us to visit Sarah's mom in Richmond, see the sights in our nation's capital, and meet our good friends from Global Mission Church in Maryland. We hit the road on Sunday evening and drove four hours before stopping to spent the night at a hotel in Charlotte. The next day, we made the five hour trip from Charlotte to Richmond to spend the night with Sarah's mom. On the way to Richmond, we had a late lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in North Carolina. After arriving in Richmond, we left the girls at Sarah's house to spend an hour with Sarah's grandma at her apartment. I am always in awe of her grandma's energy and enthusiasm for life at her age of 91 years old. We then spent Monday night hanging out on Midlothian Turnpike driving go-karts, playing putt-putt, and having Sarah's mom treat us to a delicious steak dinner at a restaurant called Hops.
        
On Tuesday morning, we drove two hours from Richmond into Maryland. We spent the entire day seeing all the cool sights in Washington DC. Since we used to live so close to DC in our Silver Spring apartment, it was especially nice to go back into a city we love to visit the Smithsonian museums, walk through DC, and check out the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the big pencil that is the Washington monument.
        
We came back from DC to have dinner with our friends from GMC in Silver Spring. We spent Tuesday night and the entire day on Wednesday with friends from GMC at Jerilyn and Susan's home, visiting Rio, celebrating Independence Day at Stephen Brown's home, laughing, eating, playing Guitar Hero and Nintendo Wii, having an impromptu talent show, and praying together right before we left. It was so great to see all of our friends from GMC growing up and maturing as college students and young adult professionals. Being away from Maryland now for a year and a half, I more fully appreciate all the love I shared and received serving such a talented, unique, diverse, and great group of young people as their pastor. Sarah and I were also so touched and moved by how welcoming, warm, and kind our friends from GMC were to our girls from Georgia. Honestly, this trip was so special to me because of the way God used it to remind me how truly blessed I am to have invested my life, shared my love, and worked alongside people who continue to amaze me with their maturing faith and deep love for God and others. I am very proud and thankful to be a part of their lives. The last picture you'll see is the championship trophy for the 9th and 10th grade boys team in the 2007 GMC Basketball Tournament that Josh gave to me as a gift. He told me that he was the coach of a championship team that was a mix of Korean-American boys from the church and African-American and Hispanic boys from the local Hewitt Avenue neighborhood whom I had worked so hard to reach out to and invite to our church. He wanted me to know that he didn't forget about my dream and that it was coming true.
                 
After sleeping at Sarah's home in Richmond on Wednesday night, we made the long drive of nine hours back to Atlanta on Thursday. Sarah will actually be back in Richmond at the end of the month while I'm away for a week-long mission trip to the Dominican Republic. For our next adventure, we really want to visit Philadelphia.
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| | Posted 7/9/2007 11:53 PM - 39 Views - 28 eProps - 14 comments
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