The first leg of our trip was to Chicago to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. We left Sunday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. and drove straight through to a campground north of Atlanta arriving there at 11:30 a.m. Monday. It was a beautiful campsite on Lake Allatoona. We had a site on the water and enjoyed a peaceful afternoon and evening listening to the symphony of Cicadas and frogs. Unlike last year's aborted camping trip everything worked as it was supposed to and we had a stress free rest. The second day we camped in Scottsburg, Indiana at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground. We were alone there except for one other camper and we never saw them. There were many camp sites that were obviously occupied but the campground was eerily silent. When we enquired about it we found that they were all weekend campers and we were there on a Tuesday night. The difference in the flora fascinated us. How neat for us native Floridians to have a "Christmas Tree" growing in our campsite. From there we travelled to Barb and Tim Robb's home in La Grange, IL. We had arranged to leave our camper there while we attended the conference. They gave us a warm welcome with a fantastic salad and real Chicago Pizza. Yum! Our first experience of Willow Creek Community Church's campus was awe inspiring. It is not just huge but humongous! Our entire sanctuary would fit on their stage. It was humbling. The speakers were wonderful and the conference ended on a powerful note with Bishop T.D. Jake's passionate and uplifting message. I told Joe that I just knew that he had been reading my journals. The message was aimed straight at my heart. His message was on passionate leadership and drawing on God's strength in times of discouragement and exhaustion. We are refreshed, renewed, inspired and encouraged. Now the rest of the adventure begins. Barb and Robb are taking us into Chicago tomorrow to see the sights and then we are heading West. I will post again the next time we are in a camp ground that has WI-Fi. Until then, as Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice!"
