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Amy Kay's Journal from Sunday, July 11th:

Howdy from the great state of Wyoming!

This is Sunday night and I am pleased to report that the drive through a few states to Laramie went smoothly and safely. The youth were in great moods and laughed a lot while also respecting one another when some were snoozing. Brenda put it best when she said that the atmosphere was really good on the way up.

We stopped to have lunch at Subway around 11:00am in Nebraska and then headed on to meet up with Chris and Dane in York where we had to gas up for the first time. We thought we were good to go for awhile, but we had to make one really quick pit stop... for me! :) Everyone was kind about it. THEN we headed to Ogallala where my sister and her family now lives. My Mom and Dad happened to be visiting their family, so they all welcomed our group and shared homemade cookies and tea with us. We played outside for awhile to get all of our kinks out, sucked down an ice-cream bar and took a full group picture before jumping back into the van.

We didn't even make it out of town when the questions regarding supper began to waft forward from the Big White One (our church van - the other two vehicles are silver). We made it an hour and then ate and fueled up in Sydney, Nebraska. After some Taco Bell/KFC we were indeed set to make it to Laramie! But no, we had to make one more pit stop nine miles outside of Laramie. :) It was good timing though because we got to see a cool monument of Abraham Lincoln. It was in celebration of his commitment of the highway systems that cross our nation. Anyway, we made it into Laramie at 9:20pm their time (now our time!) and met FCC (DOC)=s Senior Minister, John Verburg.

You can see from our pre-trip notes that John is the one who has shown us incredible hospitality on behalf of his congregation and the Habitat affiliate. Tonight was no different as he showed us around the church and gave us an exterior door key so that we can come and go throughout the week. We are getting to "live" in their "Fellowship Hall" which is more like an awesome youth room. :) As you can see from the pictures, it has a pool table, tons of couches, a ping pong table, and the kitchen is right off of our area. We are allowed to use all of their facilities throughout the week. They will also let us lock up our belongings during the day. This is an excellent place for us to be able to stay! The Laramie Athletic Club is just a block down the street so we are even close to our showers. :)

We know that without these great amenities and hosts that God is a cool God... but it is also neat to be reminded of it in very concrete ways sometimes!

The youth are all tucked away and are sleeping very soundly... the adults are as well and are ready for another day... all is well in the beautiful land of Laramie, Wyoming!

Thanks for thinking of us and checking in! We love you all - CYF Mission Team 2004

P.S. I get great reception on my mobile phone up here, so don=t be afraid to call on our emergency number if you want to check in. We might be building, playing or rock climbing, but we'll sure answer! :) Continue to Monday's journal!