Time away

My heart is overfull as I sit here in my apartment tonight.  I had gone away last week to New Hampshire.  I had gone to visit some friends that I had made when they came down here to serve StreetLight.  I connected with them instantly, and that connection has grown over the last 2 months. So when they invited me to come up to visit them I accepted.
After a 9 hour, arduous, and somewhat dangerous trip in the pouring rain, I arrived.  We stayed up for a while talking and it just felt natural being there.  For me this trip really was about getting away, from everything.  I enjoy my job, I love New Jersey and I love StreetLight, but I needed to escape all of it for a little while.  I had become overwhelmed with all of the responsibility that was washing over me.  But it turned into so much more than just a trip away.
We went to an ice castle, we went shopping, we drove around the mountains, they took me out on a frozen lake, and I even stuck my arm in an ice fisherman's hole. There were all these first time experiences for me.  Then on the way home, I stopped a few hours away from where I was staying for lunch with another 2 ladies from the team that came to Jersey to visit.  It was nice just to sit and eat and laugh, and broke up the trip back!
Thursday evening we went to someone's house for a game night (which was so much fun just as an aside!), and one of the women, Wanda mentioned that she had seen child's boots and coats on clearance at Wal-Mart and that she wished she had the money to buy them for the children we serve at StreetLight.  One of the men piped up and said "let's do it.  Let's go in the morning.  I'll cover it."  We set a time and went to Wal-Mart.  These 2 lovely people almost cleared out the children's clearance department of boots and coats.  We had 4 shopping carts full of coats and boots, which they then loaded into my car.  My eyes were full of tears.  These family members that I have only known since the middle of December cared so much for me and the Mission that they wanted to give what they could give.  They can't do the work for us, but they can come alongside us as partners and provide for us what we don't have.
When I got back to New Jersey, we counted out and there were 47 pairs of shoes and 49 coats.  Many of the coats were the coats that have a liner that can be used as a spring or fall jacket and then a heavier layer over it, and they were SOOOO CUTE.  Sorry but the girl in me has to show itself!  As I stepped back and looked at the enormity of what my friends had done for the Mission that I care so much about I couldn't help but be overwhelmed.  I can't help but feel bound to them in a way that transcends human understanding.
And that's really what it is.  Our Father God has connected us in a way that I can't comprehend.  I spent a day and a half with this team of people and yet God has used them to touch my life in irreversible and unfathomable ways.  I have included some pictures from the trip so that you can see a bit of what I experienced.  I would encourage each one of you to find those people in your lives that God wants to connect you to, the ones that will get in behind your defenses and alter the course of your life.
As always you can contact me at crucibleandcrown@gmail.com... feel free to look at the pictures I have attached!