No such thing as luck?

Wow, I have sooo much to write about!  God has truly blessed me over the past week.  First off, last Friday we had a very nice banquet that we had been planning since before I arrived.  We raised a lot of money for Student Venture Philly and our partner The Solid Rock Youth Center.  At the banquet, we had around 220 guests show up, many of which donated to our ministries!  We were very blessed!  The morning after the banquet, I flew down to Houston, TX for "It's Time" National Student Venture prayer conference.  It was my first time flying, and I took two high school guys with me who had never flown either.  Let's just say I was a little stressed about leading a trip and having no idea what I was doing, but God really blessed us on our way down!  Here's the story:

After arriving at the airport, none of us really had any idea what to do or where to go, so we saw a guy who worked there and asked him.  He was very nice and asked us where we were going and what for.  We told him about the prayer conference and he thought it was awesome!  Then he told us where he went to church only to find out that he actually attended the same church (different service time) as one of the students that was with me!  He then pointed us in the right direction and we got our tickets and went though all the checks and finally made it to our plane.  As we were about to get on the plane, we noticed that we didn't have seat numbers on our tickets.  Only one of the students had a number, which meant we would have to split up, which I wasn't too happy about because they were my responsibility.  We asked about it, and the guy said "hang on and I'll print you new tickets."  He then told us the only place there were three seats together was in First Class! So he gives us First Class tickets for our first flight ever and tells us to behave!  Once we get on the plane, the two boys sit together, but I had an empty seat next to me.  After waiting a few minutes, an interesting looking lady with spiky hair and a little Chihuahua dog in a bag boards the plane and sits next to me.  At this point, I'm thinking "Oh boy, here we go!" and "I hope the dog doesn't bark the whole time!" After a few minutes of silence, I decide to start conversation by asking her why she was flying to Houston.  She said she was going down to get ready for her son's wedding.  After talking about that for a few minutes, she asks me why I am going.  I tell her about the boys and how we are on our way to a prayer conference.  She seems very positive about it and asks me what church or organization I work with.  I tell her Campus Crusade for Christ, and she is familiar with the organization.  She thinks what we are doing is wonderful, and I tell her about our luck getting First Class on our first time flying!  She then tells me, "There is no such thing as luck," and I laugh and agree with her!  Then we proceed to talk about various things throughout our three hour flight to Houston.  As we are coming down for a landing, I curiously watch our descent from my window.  As I watch, out of the corner of my eye, I see her reach over and stick some money in my Bible which is sitting in the storage thing in front of me.  I ask, what is that for? And she says just a little extra money to help with your trip.  I then very graciously thank her, and we land and part ways.  As we are about to get off the plane, I find out that while I had talked to the lady with the dog, the boys had been befriending the flight attendants.  The flight attendants just thought the boys were adorable!  They then invite the three of us to meet the pilots and take pictures in the cockpit!  It was so cool, but I was sooo afraid I would break something!  We then say our goodbyes and get off the plane.  I take the money out that the lady gave me and count it.  She gave me $300 dollars!!!  Each plane ticket cost about $300, and it just so happened we had paid for two out of three of us.... so basically this amount completed our expenses for the trip!  I was so amazed and I told a lot of people about it once we got to the conference.  During the first session, the emcees asked if anyone had anything crazy happen with their trips getting there, and I stood up to share the story.  Shortly afterwards, I meet the Boston team and they tell me that they were on our plane!  They walked right past us in First Class and laughed at us because we looked out of place, and they even rode the bus over with the lady with the Chihuahua!

Remember what the lady told me?  "There's no such thing as luck!" God showed me before the conference even started that He wanted us there!  His hand was evident in our trip, and we were truly blessed to be there!  The conference was great, it really taught us great ideas for prayer, and how to pray big and trust God for amazing things!  We heard from some great worship leaders and speakers, and had an awesome time!  We were also blessed because we didn't have to pay for a hotel or car rental.  A staff guy from Orlando, had supporters in Houston who were out of town and they allowed us to use their home and vehicle during our stay!  Thank you so much for your prayers for our trip, it was amazing!

Collin, Scott, and Me in the cockpit!

 Your love never fails!

 Students writing praises on who God is

Students thanking God for specific things.

Here students wrote a worry on a stone, surrendered it at the altar,
and picked up a new stone and wrote a characteristic of God on it.  

Prayer for other countries

This was cool.  The students wrote a sin on an index card, 

painted it red to "cover it with the Blood of Jesus" and then nailed it to the cross.

Scott

Collin with a guy from another city

Worship with Sarah Reeves

 Worship with Altar

Scott Bartelt picked us up at the airport and we stayed with him, 

Dave, and Dave's son Jeremy at one of Scotts supporters homes for the weekend.  

Me, Scott, and Collin with Dave and his son Jeremy

The return trip

It was an amazing weekend!  I have more to write, but it will have to wait cause this one is already fairly long.  Thanks for reading, and please be praying that the kids who experienced this conference will be going back to their schools and praying for God to do Big things!