Holly in Cameroon: South Carolina!

Wrote this yesterday, just got chance to post it:

This weekend we headed to South Carolina. We left my brother's early Friday morning; we had such a nice time with him and his family, it was really difficult to say goodbye to everyone. We will see them right at the end of the trip again, but it didn't seem to make it much easier, hard only getting to see them all every four years.

While at my brothers, we realized that the plug in for the RV wasn't working; we hooked it in the last day to charge and nothing happened. When we got to South Carolina, we plugged it in at a pastor's house who had an RV hookup on his land; it still wouldn't charge. We were planning on just staying in the RV without AC but they wouldn't hear of it (it was pretty warm!). The pastor went ahead and pulled his HUGE RV out and we spent the weekend in that. We told the boys to not get too comfortable in it! Yesterday morning we left early to go to Camping World (90 miles out of our way) to get them to look at it. Praise the Lord, they had one part left that had gone wrong (the relay) otherwise it would have taken them 5 days to get the part in. It took five hours all in all, but we are thankful it is fixed and wasn't super expensive (we are sitting in cool AC as I type this :D).

The RV that we got to spend a couple of nights in

The inside

So back to South Carolina, we had such an amazing weekend there. We had met a group of people from there in Cameroon when we were with Bread For Life and always had a great connection with them all. One of the girls, Megan, came out to volunteer at the orphanage in Cameroon for a month in May. She and another girl got the whole weekend set up for us. On Saturday we went for a beautiful hike in the hills. I never realized just how spectacular South Carolina is.

Gorgeous waterfall in the mountains of South Carolina

Catching salamandas

Got one!

The face says it all!

Awwww!

Lori, me, and Megan (such great friends!)

Jordan was feeling poorly on Saturday so Jake stayed back from the hike with her. She had a fever and a sore throat; my nephew had strep while we were visiting him, so we were praying and believing that it wasn't that. We don't have insurance so we need everyone to stay healthy on our trip. Praise the Lord, by Monday she was completely better! We serve a faithful God!

Saturday evening we had a cookout with everyone that had been to Cameroon in the past years. It was a lot of fun to sit and reminisce and we had quite a few laughs. One girl had put together a beautiful scrap book of her time in Cameroon. It was also a very encouraging time.

Sunday morning we were able to share in the church. There is a new pastor since last time we came but he was just as welcoming. I must admit, I love southern, maybe a little more traditional, churches; everyone is just so friendly. From the second you walk in the door, you feel right at home. I also really enjoyed the singing as it was all hymns without any bells and whistles. Now I love modern worship as much as the next person, but I do miss hymns. I grew up in a church that sang hymns and I think the words are powerful. And to boot, they had some of my favorites. Somewhere during singing, the words overwhelmed me at the Lord's immense love, then I had to remind myself that I was speaking in 10 minutes and my mascara was running. We enjoyed sharing about our work in Cameroon. Then we went for lunch with a pastor of another church who is interested in sending teams to Cameroon in the future. So lots of good contacts made.

Josh and Seth (on the drum) singing, "Jesus is my Friend" in front of the Earls Grove Baptist Church

Jake preaching (now you know why I don't take the pictures!)

Sunday evening we headed back to church for an evening of singing and food, another awesome night. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone again, but we are grateful for such a blessed time.

We are meeting up with friends (former missionaries to Cameroon) tomorrow so we had a free day. We decided to hit the Chimney Rock State park that was on the way. We found a quaint little camp ground to hook up in that was just perfect for the kids to have a good run around and let some energy off. We head to the State park tomorrow.