Friday began with a drive across the northern tier of North Dakota. It was a pretty drive with lots of frosty trees greeting us along the way.
It was, however, quite windy, and the closer we got to our destination of Langdon, North Dakota the more challenging the drive became. Ground drifting increased and visibility decreased.
From Langdon we made our way south to Devils Lake for an evening with Bert's youngest brother, Kevin, his wife Monica and their three children. Well, "children" might not be the proper word, as the oldest was having her 19th birthday and we got in on her celebration following her brother's piano recital. Her birthday request was to have the family go bowling together. What fun! But, boy, was I out of practice!
Saturday morning we were up and off to Grand Forks, about 90 miles to the east. We met up with two of my cousins for lunch, as well as the younger one's daughter.
These are cousins I seldom see, but it is great to know we can always pick right up where we left off. Our fathers were brothers and my dad often flew us to Grand Forks for visits. In the fall, they would make the drive to our corner of the state to help with harvest. Precious memories!
In the afternoon we made our way to the shopping mall, where we met up with a classmate I hadn't seen in a number of years. Once again, it was easy to jump right into conversation as if only days had passed instead of years. Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture while we were together.
At 5:30 we were on call to pick up our niece who was in town as part of the North Dakota Honor Band. Each year students are selected by audition to be a part of this weekend of music. Her parents and siblings had not yet arrived from their hometown of Dickinson, so we got in on the tail end of their rehearsal and took her out for a bite to eat. By the time we had finished, the rest of the family caught up with us and it was off to a college level hockey game. We had been given free tickets, and I tried to act excited, even though hockey would not be at the top of my list of favorite sports. It was fun to see the much talked about "Ralph Engelstad Arena" and the team came up with a win for us.
Plans for Sunday included the concert at the Chester Fritz Auditorium, with appearances by the Honor Band, Honor Women's Chorus and Mixed Chorus. Since the concert wouldn't begin until the afternoon, we decided to find a church to attend in the morning. Our search brought us to an Evangelical Free church with a beautiful sanctuary and outstanding worship music.
The sermon was given by a guest speaker from a Bible Camp, and his topic was interestingly the story of Mary and Martha. God was either reprimanding us for being such busybodies all week-end or applauding our effort to take a few moments to sit quietly in His presence!
Today, as I look back on all we accomplished, I find myself saying a prayer of thanks. "Thank you, God, for keeping us safe in our travels. Thank you for already being on hand in each and every situation we found ourselves in. Thank you for helping us to connect with so many special people along our journey and for providing a restful day after a busy weekend."
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the LORD establishes their steps.
~Proverbs 16:9
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