Okalahoma City is a LONG drive (and info regarding the rest of the trip)

Good morning - It's 6:10 am and some of us (Andrea, Josh and Reuben) are up and at em eating breakfast.

Thanks for the great send off yesterday. The entire group was blessed to have many family members, Jarl, Becky, Dale and Rebecca to send us off. We enjoyed a few songs and Rebecca offered an awesome prayer to start our jouney. We had a great 4 hours starting out. Lots of rain between Fargo and Sioux City. It was nice to have the clouds and rain as we set out, because the bus stayed cool and many of those on board were able to sleep. We have a great driver who's been very flexible with the kids in terms of standing, stretching and moving around - which is a good thing, because it was a LONG, HOT drive. There was a heat advisory throughout the midwest yesterday (temps at 105 +) and man, we could feel it! We stopped in Sioux City, Council Bluffs, IA for lunch, an ice cream break outside of Topeka, dinner in Wichita and made our way to our room in OK. Everyone on board enjoyed a great day, talking, laughing, bonding - and in my case, getting to know people.

A few notes: we are NOT staying at the Holiday Inn Express in OK City on the way back. We had a situation with rooms last night, so we are at a neighboring hotel. Therefore, the hotel info for NEXT Tuesday night (the 5th) is Best Western Barsana Hotel and Suites, phone is 405-601-1200 in case you would need to reach your child.

Also - pending time and how today goes, we may not cross into MX tonight. It gets dark about 1 1/2 earlier down here, and today is going to be a crunch. Derek, myself and the chaperones will discuss the logistics/safety of driving into Mexico after we arrive at the border and determine if we will drive to Monterray today or stay in Laredo overnight.

Thank you for your prayers, if you want to follow along with the devotions, today's passage is Matt 28:16 - 20.

"Lord, thank you for an awesome first day of travels yesterday. We are in awe of the beauty of this earth that we experienced as we traveled through the farm lands of our country. We are blessed to have felt your presence and spirit in us as we traveled and learned about each other. We ask you to continue to bless our journey today and help the chaperones guide, lead. We pray that today will open our eyes and our hearts to The Great Commission and that your direction to go and make diciples will indeed change our spiritual lives forever."

Andrea