Illinois-Peoria, Wenona, El Paso

We are in the upper part of Illinois, and it is just like Ohio, flat, windy and you can go site seeing but you will only see, one of 3 things: 1) corn fields, standing 2) Corn fields, cut 3) corn fields plowed.  Yep not alot of choices especially if you are not into corn fields....hahahah Lucky for us we love them!  Anyway I put all three of these towns together because they are pretty small and we didn't stay long in any of them.  PS: some have pics most do not.
Peoria: First Baptist Church of Peoria, it was massive and beautiful.  The building was wonderful, I would have loved to have directed a choir in that place.  Ya know I really miss the choirs that I use to direct.  Anyway, this Sunday they had a guest violinist, he was wonderful don't ask me his name because he was Nicaragua and couldn't pronounce or spell it anyway.  But he was Good! I have had a lot of trouble with video on this blog but I will try again.

 

So next is Wenona, that is where the hotel is and it is very nice.  We are enjoying getting out of the wind...man is it windy here....  No pic... its a hotel????

 

Anyway then this Sunday we got dressed and headed to church.  The El Paso Church of the Nazarene in El Paso, Il.  This is a really small church and they are wonderful bunch of people.  The pastor is  Amy and she is just the cutest thing... She is the Sunday School teacher and they are working on a video series that was really cool.  James and I was really surprised when these 3 people got up and started to play.  This was a father daughter and another man that we didn't get to meet but he was the drummer.  The father played lead guitar and the daughter the bass.  It was WONDERFUL!!!!  They were so upbeat and happy to be praising the Lord.  This is a little church that could.... they were very refreshing to listen to.  I will try again to upload a quick video of them.  I did get to grab a quick photo of pastor Amy.

 

 

Sorry I can't get the video to work..... take me at my word.... they were really inspiring.

James and TJ

 

 

 

Back to "work" thats funny!

So we are back on the road and we actually had to work this week....I know????What is the deal with that?  Anyway, we are in Illinois, we actually have come full circle, we are doing a job that we did last year.  Man is it nice to be able to not have to hunt for things.  We know where the van will sit at the company, we know where the laundry mat is, we know the hotel.  It was wonderful on the East coast but it is nice to have some down time.  The people are so much calmer.  Here are a few pics from the area, fall has hit here with a vengence.  It is beautiful.  We went to a FWB church Sunday and the guest preacher looked alot like my brother, Jeff.  It is hard to believe Jeff has been gone for 7 years.  Anyway it was nice to have church with him again.  The guest preacher  was really nice.  Then off to work this week.  We were at Caterpillar in Decatur, Il.  For those of you that may not know James turns into a 3 year old when it comes to trucks, earthmover, dump trucks...  So the drooling at Caterpillar was a little messy...hahah  Anyway the dump truck that you will see is a 300 ton dump truck.  The biggest they make.  I must admit that was pretty cool.  James got a tour of the plant and was totally beside himself.  We drove to Peoria about 2 hours after the Caterpillar job and you can guess what the topic of discussion was....yep....Caterpillar trucks.  Anyway we have a couple of weeks here and then we head to Kansas for the first part of November.  It has been rumored that we are heading to Oklahoma.....ssshhhh, we never take rumor to be fact untill we have the job orders telling us the dates.  So we love and miss you all and hope you have a great day.