Chicas Of Faith 2008 - Search For Independence

Where were we? I laid down and went to sleep! Guitar strung and mostly tuned. Ahh. The next morning was super cool. The sound of rockin' guitar playing came from somewhere in the house. Not from me - no. Not from GGG - no. But who? Taylor! The boy of the host family was quietly playing his guitar in his room. What a way to start the day! I too, sat down and finished tuning my guitar. I tested it out by running through a couple of songs. BLESSED BE YOUR NAME and REVELATION SONG (This one I even played from memory! Who knew I could do that?) GGG had come down and here and there, when I wasn't being so loud that I could only hear myself, I could hear her dropping the harmony. Ahh - a life of worship....

Jenster gave us the tour of their basement, AKA Rock Out Central! A wall of guitars, a keyboard, some brass instruments, amplifiers, etc etc. And THEN adjacent to Rock Out Central was Mr. Jenster's workshop. "Who cares about man tools?" Well, my friends - this is not your ordinary workshop. No. This is the GUITAR workshop. He has a desk with a nice piece of carpet laid across it. Also on the desk, a Black and Decker cordless screwdriver with guitar machine turner attachment. I'm sure there is an actual technical name for this tool, I just don't know it. *Dear Todd, we did not touch your tools! Although, having spent at least a good 2 hours the night before restringing my 12-string, I really could have used that bad boy. Truly, if you had been home, I would have paid you to do it for me.*

So we got the tour of the best rooms ever and wiped the drool on our sleeves. Then it was time to admit that we had actually come east for tourism. We really loved this family. They were all so gracious and warm and we would have happily stayed with them. But GGG and I had flown in early so that we could go and meet Philadelphia.

So we arranged our luggage neatly downstairs; which we would retrieve later at dinner so we didn't have to figure out how to lug it all over Philadelphia. Then we loaded up into the car with Jenster and the kids and headed over to pick up Taylor's girlfriend - 'cause the Jenster family were visiting a pirate exhibit in Philly (not touring around with us. Whatever.) Taylor's girlfriend was as cute as Katie.

Jenster really is a GREAT person to be your tour guide! She drove us through Valley Forge on our way into Philadelphia. Guess what?? I finally pulled out my camera!


I am learning that there is just not enough time and I have to accept that I am not going to see it all in4/5 days.

So we get into Philadelphia and Jenster is telling us about where to find a Philly Cheese steak, where to do this and that and then all of a sudden - she pulls the car over and tells us to GET OUT! I am not even kidding. She kicked us to the curb! Literally! Some drivel about,"I realized this would be the best place for you to go visit the Liberty Bell." Psh. She just wanted to be rid of us.
She did get me super close to the Liberty Bell though. My dream was to touch it (and then sanitize my hand after, of course.) They made it impossible for me to experience my dream without getting arrested. I considered it. At any rate I took lots of pictures of it.

We also toured Independence Hall, which originally was named the Pennsylvania State House. Interesting. I know. I am a history buff. Get rid of the jealousy and move on people. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Here is me AT Independence Hall.....




Here are just a couple of shots of the architecture...



Let me just share with you, that you can't have a better companion to experience historical stuff than God's Guitar Girl. I adore this lady. She is passionate, outrageously funny, intelligent, strong-willed, godly, beautiful, quirky and she loves me back. We just went together, imagining the scene as men met to iron out the details of their futures and the futures of their descendants. Being willing to meet in this way at the risk of their very lives. Amazing.
Of course we ate the Philly Cheese steak from Sonny's (mine with no onions), and we also used the public transportation system - all the way down to the airport to pick up the other Chicas. GGG wrote an awesome, "get to know the '08 Chicas" post. You can read that here. (I am the Chica that you think is the cutest) Chicas of Faith 2008 was now officially about to begin.......

Hooie, Otherwise Known As Writer's Block

Okay. I want to tell you all about Chicas of Faith 2008, but I keep getting stuck on where to start.

"Start from the beginning," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time in July of 2007, on a plane on my way home from Chicas of Faith 2007, I started praying and musing over where I would be going for our Chica adventure in 2008.....

"Ummm.....that's a little TOO far back," you say.

I know.

"Start from when you actually KNEW where you were going," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time in I don't remember what month of 2007, after much prayer, we knew that we would be going to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for our Chica adventure 2008. It would be months of planning, decision making, praying, searching, re-searching, saving, praying....

"Meh. Still too early in the timeline," you say.

See my drama?

"Start the day you left for your trip," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time, on the sweltering Louisiana 8th day of October, I attended PWOC; then skeedaddled out of there, dropped my friend at her home on my way out of town and hit the road for GGG's house in Texas.

"Och, that's really boring too! How about some pictures?" you say.

Yeah, about that... I didn't actually take any pictures until I got into downtown Philadelphia on the 9th.

"Hmm. Okay, well tell us more about your pre-retreat with GGG. There's GOT to be something good in there," you say.

I think you may be right. Let me think on that for a bit and I'll get back to you. Thanks for helping me work this out.

Just Dropping By

Oh my beloved internet! How I have missed you so! The Amish, they just do not understand me and you and our relationship. My dear, sweet lovely internet. I now know that I could never marry Jacob Yoder and have his Amish babies. Poor poor Rebecca Lapp, how does she live without the wonders of web browsing? I'll never know. I will try to fill you in on all my adventures since we have been separated from each other, but for now, I will leave you with a picture postcard....

The Declaration of Independence
(c) Sing4joyphotography

Here I Am At Independence Hall