from pasco to minneapolis and back

towards the end of september, allan and i got the awesome opportunity to travel to minneapolis, minnesota to attend a conference put on by desiring God. the theme of the conference was finish the mission, bringing the gospel message of Jesus Christ to people who have never heard it and/or do not have access to a local church. hands down, allan and i thought this was the best conference we've ever attended! our hearts and passion for global missions were re-ignited and we are excited about the day when every people will confess that Jesus is Lord! allan and i have a hope that one day we will be able to be a part of global missions by being a "goer," living abroad somewhere and sharing the message of Christ. for now, we will do our best serving as "senders." :)

in addition to the conference, we got to spend some time (5 hours!) at the mall of america. it was pretty overwhelming, even for a shopper like me. there is a theme park smack in the middle of it, complete with roller coasters and even a water ride. i have to say, though, that it wasn't all that i thought it would be. there were multiples of the same store scattered on various levels of the mall, which was a waste. my feet were aching by the time we decided to call it quits. i think we spent more time walking from one store or escalator to the next than actually shopping. nonetheless, i am glad to have visited the largest shopping mall in america and more glad that i didn't walk away broke. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures to show for it. so, hopefully you'll enjoy all of the ones we took from the conference (mostly self-portraits!).

our comfy bed in our hotel SUITE. sweet! you can't see it, but our room was huge. we had to walk through a sitting/living room to get to our bedroom!

finish the mission ... here we are!

second self-portrait at the conference ... all smiles!

pastor john about to intro louie giglio ... so excited!

a pic of the conference from our vantage point.

a fighter-verse knight we picked up from the conference. it's standing on the bar of hell's kitchen, an awesome underground restaurant we had lunch at while enjoying some live music. the food was delicious. (btw, the purpose of the knight is to remind us that we are putting on the armor of God every time we memorize scripture. awesome! and, pretty apt, too, for being in hell's kitchen and all!)

got to meet JP after lunch!! mission finished! totally kidding! he was gracious and asked us to keep praying for him. we also got his autograph for his newest book, bloodlines. still need to read it.

our last morning at the conference ... still smiling.

waiting for the train to take us to the airport. goodbye, minneapolis!

p.s. a huge thank you to my parents for coming and staying with the kids while allan and i snuck away! thanks, mommy and daddy!