St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 4

ACKKK.

That was my reaction when I pulled up the "St. Paul {Guy Penrod}Weekend, Part 3" post so that I could start Part 4 and realized...it's been two weeks since I posted part 3!  How did THAT happen?? How did I leave my poor readers hanging there, waiting to see what was at the bottom of that elevator, for two whole weeks??

Well, I know how I did it.  Life has been, well, LIFE, these couple of weeks.  And then some. :)  Hopefully I'll be able to share more about that soon.  And for a lot of reasons, my brain has been mush.  Most of my blogging takes place early in the morning or late in the evening, and lately, even when I haven't been trying to sleep during those times (because for some reason my body is in "wide awake from 2-5 a.m. mode" right now), I haven't been able to string two coherent sentences together by the time I get a chance to blog.  So...for those who've been waiting...I apologize.  And I am really going to TRY to do better.  Although, as I tell my children...no promises, but I will do my best. 

So...in the last installment, we'd FINALLY arrived in St. Paul, weary and waterlogged, gotten settled in our hotel, and then gotten a phone call to come to the lobby.  I'd called Jodie to meet us at the elevator, told the girls to throw jackets on over their pjs, and swiped a bit of lipstick on...as if ANYTHING was going to help after 15 hours in the car and running through a deluge. :)

And when we stepped off  the elevator, we found...

FRIENDS!

Otherwise known as "The Friends Who Live in our Computers." :-)

These ladies...

Kerri, Sue, and Denise
(Photos taken at the concert the next day.  I was too bedraggled to get the camera out for our initial meeting. :))

Heidi

Heidi, as I mentioned in Part 2 of this series, is the one who ran across my blog in a Google search for Guy Penrod, and posted the link on a site for those who appreciate Guy's music and ministry. (She was also the promoter who made this concert happen.  She did an amazing job, and the story of God's work in that is truly awesome.  I'm planning for that to be an installment all its own in this series. :))  I then found that site through my stat counter.  To make a long story short from there, we made some very dear friends through that contact.  They had prayed for Jodie when she was caregiving for her MIL, and then when her MIL died last December.  They had prayed for my family when we were trying to find answers when one of our children was experiencing some scary medical issues.  And we had prayed for them as well. 

And now, finally, we were meeting them in person!  

The family of God is an amazing thing.  From the moment we "met" these ladies (who had come from all over the country) in person, we felt like they were long-lost friends. We had already shared with them, prayed for them and been prayed for by them...the fact that we hadn't been in the same room with them didn't seem to matter at all.  Our hearts were already one, and the time we were able to spend with them throughout our weekend in St. Paul was as thrilling to us as the concert itself.  

As exciting as meeting our "new" friends was, the girls were about asleep on their feet.  We left Mrs. Jodie downstairs visiting and went upstairs to get some sleep before the "main event" the next day.  Next installment: CONCERT DAY ARRIVES! 

As I was typing this post, the old Gaither song "The Family of God" kept playing through my head.  I decided to look for a video, and I found a "golden oldie".  If you are like me and haven't heard the story behind this song before, a word of warning...grab some tissue before you watch.  What a blessing!

St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 1

St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 2

St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 3