Glory to God

God has certainly blessed us this week!

Our parents arrived safely in Chicago Friday afternoon and showered us with gifts of food and love! Mom and Dad McLellan brought us giant bags full of fresh honeycrisp apples from the Nystrom's orchard. Mom and Dad Johnson brought us a gallon of fresh picked raspberries. Not to mention the moms baked for us and bought us more food! The guys went to the Gopher/Northwestern football game Saturday, while the gals walked around town and did a little shopping. (The Gophers won - yea!) After we all crashed on the couch for a nap, we spent the evening downtown. We went to the top of the John Hancock building and ate some awesome food at Portillo's. We were sad to see our parents leave on Sunday morning, but know we will get to see them again soon. We are so thankful for them and blessed by them.

Micah will be going to Israel in 2 weeks! Yep, that's right - he'll be out of the country before you know it! He emailed the tour company that arranges trips to Israel through That the World May Know Ministries to see about going to Israel in the next few years. They directed him to the ministry directly and they passed on his inquiry directly to Ray Vander Laan. Soon, Ray emailed Micah directly about going to Israel with him. He remembered Micah from the trip to Turkey Micah took with Ray in 2003. Someone had backed out of an October trip to Israel and Ray offered Micah that spot. Micah initially turned the opportunity down thinking he had school. Ray put Micah on a waiting list of 250 people that were waiting to go with him to Israel in THREE YEARS! Micah then realized he had school off one of the two weeks of the trip. Micah decided to pursue Israel and got Ray's okay to have time to get permission from work and school. Micah's professors and work encouraged him full-heartedly to go to Israel. On top of that Micah got a scholarship that pays for 2/3 of the trip! We're pretty confident that God orchestrated all of this - what an amazing God we have that takes care of all the details! He has provided Micah with a wonderful, life changing opportunity to see the places Jesus walked and see the bible come to life!

Lauren has gotten a lot of leads job-wise this week as well. She was offered an interview this Monday, but later turned it down as it involved and hour and a half commute. But, the woman offering the job instilled Lauren with confidence about finding a job. Lauren has an interview on Thursday for being a tutor and got a call today about setting up an interview to be a teacher at a childcare center. Lauren would really like to be blessed with the teaching job at the childcare center, but knows God is working in her and Micah's life and has something good in store.

Love,

M&L