The week began with April and quality bonding time with some friends from her church community- Alison, Josh, and Leah- at a burrito place, a coffee shop, and hauling couches and other fun things to April's Our House project.
The next day, April and I took a field trip to St. Petersburg's local Saturday market and took a long jaunt around Sawgrass Lake Park. This jaunt yielded exciting sights like three alligators, a water moccasin, tons of birds and a multitude of armadillos. :-)
Sunday was spent meeting all of the delightful people that are a part of April's fellowship- Underground Network- and her house church. This fellowship was simply a joy to experience. So much diversity in thought and lifestyle and experience- all in one house loving each other and desiring to know and serve Christ. Beautiful.
Monday and Tuesday I spent some time baking on the beach while April was at work. The beaches were gorgeous and had very different character. The first beach- St. Pete's Beach- was nothing but white sand and sun and hotels and lots of people. The beaches I was at on the second day had more trees and shade and were much more isolated. All were beautiful and I loved the time to read, listen to the sound of the ocean, and explore the area. I even saw some dolphins, a bunch of gopher tortoises, and ran across yet another snake as I was hiking on Egmont Key island.
Wednesday April and I made our way to Tina and Ryan's house for lunch and enjoyed our fellowship while helping Tina pot plants and avoiding fire ants. :-) After April left, Tina, Ryan, and I headed to their church for a meal and service. I loved meeting the people there and hearing everyone express disbelief at the extreme cold and large volume of snow that everyone in Bemidji experienced last week!!! I think most people simply shook their heads and wondered what kind of weirdos would choose to live in such a place!!
On Thursday, T and I went to visit Ryan at the military base for lunch and saw some more dolphins while we were at the base beach! Then, we headed to T's friend Andrea's apartment to do some school work and finally returned to their house to cook some yummy dinner (Tina is an AMAZING cook!) and had some prayer time before T's friends came over for a Bible study.
Friday was my last day in Florida and what a wonderful day it was! I awoke to two hours of sitting on a picnic table in T's backyard overlooking what Floridians would consider a "lake" and Minnesotans would consider a "pond" and read Scripture while ducks waddled around me. T and I then decided to do an organizational project (I LOVE TO ORGANIZE!! :-)) and reward ourselves afterward with a trip to potentially see some manatees at an area where an electric plant releases warm water that the manatees and other sea creatures like to dwell in. We were richly rewarded indeed. We saw a few manatees, a small shark (woohoo!), and a water snake (what was it with me and snakes this trip? Thank goodness for my friend Nicholle's warning prior to my departure!! :-))
Thank you Lord for a week filled with so much obvious evidence of your beauty and goodness!
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