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The short drive to the school was beautiful. When we arrived at the school, we were amazed at the beauty of the school’s location. It is set among beautiful pasturelands with mountains in the background. We were greeted by the administrator and the associate administrator, Steve Harrison and Sue Kessler. We met the children inside their auditorium and unloaded special gifts that Betty Roe and Melba Eason had coordinated from the choir. These gifts were brought in but not given out yet. Our program began with a game that Tina led which involved our choir members pairing up with the children. The kids seemed to have a wonderful time competing with our adults, and there was a lot of laughter and fun shared. Once we finished the game, Tina taught all of us a song called “On a Day Like This.“ The funniest part of that game was not watching the children, but watching those of us a little more challenged in age and rhythm! It was a lot of fun! We sang some songs with the ukulele and the kids seemed to enjoy that as well. Their favorite was the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” from The Lion King. Tina led a wonderful devotion and related so well to the children. Her own family history parallels what a lot of these children have experienced in their own lives. They listened intently without a sound in the room. At the end of our devotion, Betty and Melba distributed the cinch bags filled with gifts to the children. The cinch bags included Bibles purchased by the choir, those at home as well as those on the tour. We also left materials and supplies for the school. It was a tearful goodbye when we left. One of the sweetest things I heard said was, when asked about her favorite part of summer so far, a little girl said, “spending time with Andrew and Abby Robertson.” When asked why, she said, “She looks like my mother.” When we departed from the children’s home, we headed toward the Retreat Farm. This is an active working farm that sells and provides vegetables for the community. Our group was divided into two groups. One group ate first while the other took the tour. We then rotated and switched places. One of the most unique things we saw was a steer named Carlos who was half Brahma and half Red Holstein. He was enormous! I mean he was at least three times Tina Corn‘s height. No one loved Carlos more than Doug Massey. I think he fed Carlos a bale of hay. We also visited the pigpen, saw vegetables being harvested, and visited the cheese building. One unique part of the farm is that they have a shack called “pay what you can.” This is exactly what it sounds like. Folks stop to get fresh vegetables and pay what they can afford. As we left Brattleboro, we headed north toward Waterbury, Vermont, the home of Ben & Jerry’s. We stopped for about 45 minutes to buy an ice cream cone and visit their famous “flavor cemetery.” Hopefully you can see some photos of the tombstones in their flavor cemetery. Very cute idea! Our trip continued directly to our hotel in South Burlington, Vermont. We had a short transition to prepare for our cruise on Lake Champlain. After about 20 minutes, we re-boarded the bus and headed to the docks at Lake Champlain. We had feared there might be some bad weather, but the weather was perfect. The lake is stunningly beautiful surrounded by the Adirondack mountains to the west. Lake Champlain divides Vermont from New York. Just to give you an idea of the size of the lake, Lake Keowee is 28 square miles. Lake Hartwell is 87 square miles. Lake Champlain is 490 square miles. We had gorgeous vistas of the mountains, sailboats, lighthouse buoys in the lake, and breathtaking sunset views. Most of the second floor of the ship, everything except the bow, was reserved for First Baptist Church. We all found our way to the exterior of the stern of the ship where most of us ate our supper. We found out that several of our staff members who were waiting on us were from Ukraine. One girl had just arrived in the US in May. We talked with her about her family and her concerns for her country and as we exited the Spirit of Ethan Allen, the name of our ship, we had prayer with her and one of her Ukrainian friends on board the ship. It was a really special time. After arriving back at the hotel, Bob Edwards let us in our evening devotion and challenged us to consider how God keeps his care about us even when we may not be aware of it. We gave out our “Be the Light“ note cards and talked about our plans for the next day before dismissing for a night’s rest.