This weekend Scott and I ventured out to the wilds of Central PA to see Sara Groves and some other singer/songwriters perform at Messiah college. What started out as a little get together with Shana and Chris ended up being a whirlwind of reconnecting with old friends! We saw Dan and Amy Eckel as well as Amy's friend and my acquaintance Heather. Then we ran into Deb Stuber. We also caught up with Bill and Becky Waring--Becky is another friend of mine from back home. It was so fun! One thing I noticed is that with some friends, extended time between visits doesn't change much. Amy and I hadn't seen each other in 3 years--and we noted---"nothing has changed, it's so fun and easy being with you!"
Amy, Dan and Scott
Bill and Becky in their hippy apartment :-)
As for the concert--what a beautiful and heart wrenching display of God's people loving the poor, oppressed, widowed, orphaned and needy... I cannot say enough of the efforts of the 6 people we saw and heard from. Please check out what is going on with that tour at http://www.saragroves.com/. Also you can find out information at Food for the Hungry and International Justice Mission. This tour was the brainchild of Sara and her husband Troy after they went to Rwanda in recent years. Sara has shared her heart and how she was affected in song on her newest album "Tell me what you know". The things they mainly focused on at the concert were the current issues of sex trafficking and modern day slavery in the world, things we would find gruesome and hard to swallow if approached with in our world right now. But these things are happening all the time, right now. 
Sara, Troy, Sandra and Derek
Sara singing "Add to the Beauty"
Sandra McCracken
Derek Webb
Needless to say this concert has afforded me with more information in my brain that I must now wrestle with. It feels so hard to know how to divide your time and prayer life sometimes. Scott and I struggle at times, because we would like to help with all kinds of things, but we know that is impossible. This causes us to draw near to God and ask Him what should be the desires of our hearts and where we should be ministering.
Another, but more frivolous and fun, thing that I discovered at the concert is Sandra McCracken whom I have immensely enjoyed on the two Indelible Grace albums that we own. I now have the sampler from her newest album "Red Balloon". You can get it here. You can also get her husband, Derek Webb's newest album there as well.
