PENNSYLVANIA: What an awesome beautiful place. I would like to live here some day if God allows. So Dad, Mom, and Tara Butler all came down and saw us for a couple of days. It was wonderful and great to be face to face in the same zip code as family. We had a blast seeing the sites (mostly green), going to the crayola factory, over eating every day and just plain having fun with each other. One of my favorite memories is Mom, Tara, and I going across the street from Cracker Barrel while Dad and Joel chewed the grass (aka had deep conversations) while we went through BRAND NEW RV's/5TH WHEELERS. It was awesome. I picked out one I really wanted and then asked God for it. We will see what God does! :)
Dad, Mom, and Tara left and we were sad they had to leave us but I was glad to lose 5 to 10 lbs after they left. TOO MUCH GOOD FOOD!! WE have been working on the bus for a week straight now. It has been wonderful and fun and hard and dirty and and and. Joel has worked on it the most. I work on it half days the other half I am helping Rebekah with cooking, cleaning, and with her three beautiful little girls. Josh and Rebekah are graciously housing us. And Josh is even helping us after he does a full day of work. They are a huge blessing and so much fun to be with. Most every night we are playing spades and eating chocolate or sweets in some way shape or form.
The bus is turning out wonderful. We are working on it inside and out. One day Josh told us there was going to be a big bus that was being scrapped so we went up to see if we could salvage anything. But they were just about to scrap it and we would of held them up. We were bummed because we saw all the seats had been taken out of it and we really wanted the rubber on the floor. Later I talked Joel into going back up to see if they had completely demolished the bus and to our great surprise they had only taken part of it apart and left it upside down. God is so good to do that for us because the sun beat down on the bus which softened the glue that was gluing the rubber to the floor and with the bus being upside down it made it easier for us to peal the floor off the ceiling. It was a huge blessing. Our God thinks of everything.
So we have been chipping, sanding, washing, fixing, siliconing, and other stuff to the bus. We are excited. Next week we hope to paint the bus. We had some one offer to paint the bus "professionally" and we would only have to pay for the paint. What a blessing that is. The two colors that the guy had were white and lime green. I thought it would be great to have it lime green but Joel made the wise executive decision of white. What a brilliant man I have.
So it looks like we will be here for about another week or a little less. We hope to stop by and see old Friend Ships crew as we head back to CA. We are excited with each pit stop we get to see more crew. SO we will be seeing the Condrons, the Virginia crew, Jeff and Anne Reed, Jason Grevings and maybe another couple depending on time and schedules.
Well that is it from us. We feel so blessed in what God is doing even in the littlest details.
Love ya'll VERY VERY VERY MUCH,
The Butlers
The UPSIDE-DOWN Bus that we took the rubber floor from.
(Can you find JOEL in the picture?)
Joel cutting the rubber floor from the ceiling.
Dess pealing the floor from the ceiling. God is so Good!! He makes life easier for us
Joel and Ruthie
