Apr 27 -Teen Challenge, travel in MA, NH, VT

Today we attended church at BCC, Bethany Community Church in Bellingham, MA. We were greeted warmly at the front door and were guided by one of the ladies to where “Kings Kids” was taking place. All of the lead Sunday school workers were in ornate Imperial costumes from around the 1700’s. Genesis was introduced to a girl her age and we then proceeded to the main sanctuary.

Teen Challenge had about 16 men at the church that were singing in a choir and telling parts of their life stories. The most memorable was from a 26 yr old named Caleb who had grown up in that church, memorizing scripture and attending the Christian school at BCC.

Caleb spoke of how the last time he had been on stage at the church was when he graduated high school and how he then fell into the wrong crowd, started smoking marijuana, and then doing harder drugs. This led him down a path of armed robberies. He had been released to Teen Challenge but will be sentenced this Thursday regarding the gun charges. He knows that the sentence he deserves according to the law is 100 years because he committed crimes with a weapon while he was still on probation. God has already worked in Caleb’s situation and he is now facing 6 years. All this for a young man who is now married with a two yr old and a two week old. 

Caleb apologized to the church and the pastor for speaking out against them in the past and how the Pastor’s forgiveness had helped him become the Christian he is today. Taking responsibility for his actions by turning himself in and finding out that he had not even been a suspect. The burden of his deeds had become too great to bear.

We  left the service thanking God for his goodness to us and for His forgiveness for the things that cause struggles in our lives.

After church we packed up and drove out of Massachusetts  through New Hampshire and into Vermont. We are staying at a KOA campground that doesn’t open for the season until next week!

Apr 26 -Catch up day

It is a Blog catch up day, cleaning and relaxing as it is raining today.  Peter and Zane went antique looking.  Emphasis on looking as we do not have space for more antiques after our visit to Pennsylvania.  :) 

Edit. 

Peter and Zane both came back with treasures, Zane with an old coke crate to use to display Matchbox cars and Peter with a pair of leather and wood ski poles that were given to Zane, who gave them to Peter. Its a long story.

Apr 25 -Boston, Paul Revere, Freedom Trail

Paul Revere's grave marker

We drove  the car to Boston. Once there we went on a walking tour of the Freedom Trail. Around 1952 the Freedom Trail was proposed in Boston. The idea was to join together 16 of Boston’s historic places with a path that could be followed by anyone so that they wouldn’t miss any of the history. Rather than navigate the “red line” around the city ourselves we went with a guide who was in costume and in character. Our guide was Paul Revere’s wife Rachel.  It was a fun and great tour, learning about Sam Adams (nothing to do with beer). Benjamin Franklin’s upbringing.  Did you know that because of the “rules of engagement” Paul Revere was not killed when he was captured because he himself was not carrying a gun.  We learned about the Son’s of Liberty who were some of the early organized dissenters of British rule. The Boston Tea Party happened when protestors against the tax on tea disguised themselves and snuck onto British ships and then threw overboard 342 chests of tea. It was considered unpatriotic to drink tea after this and is one of the reasons coffee is so popular in the USA. The Boston Tea Party was just the lead up to The Revolutionary War, and eventually the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration of Independence was read out from a second story of a building in what is now downtown Boston and continues to be read out from the same location every 4th of July. All of this happened in and around the Boston area.

Paul, who has been famous for nearly 200 years was the chief outhouse inspector

Boston Harbour

Boston Library

April 24.5 Please comment

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Apr 24 - RI to MA

As we continue to move north, we are heading  through Rhode Island to Bellingham, Massachusetts, which is about an hour outside of Boston. 

We checked into Circle CG Farm Campsite and worked on doing laundry and organizing the motorhome. 

Campground fish pond. No 'gators in this one.

Apr 23 -Lebanon, CT

Walmart parking lot here we come!  We strategized how to get our big rig around NYC rather than through it. I thought we had the perfect plan.  As we were getting ready to turn onto a toll highway, the sign read NO TRUCKS!  Uh Oh!  Peter quickly pulled out of the toll highway lane and I began looking at how we could get where we needed to go.  The GPS always wanting to reroute us back to the road we are not allowed to take.  Well, after a longer route, we got across the Hudson River on a bridge that fit us and we made it to a Walmart in Lebanon, Conneticuit for the night.  We were able to get groceries and more!  Thank you Lord for the mercy and leading you give us.