A Magical Mystery Tour
Piling our stuff and then ourselves into the Harris Van, not knowing that this would be an adventure we would long remember………it was a Tuesday evening. We arrived in Hernando without incident and had a restful night sleep after “the girls” (Amy, Grace and Jenna) stopped talking.

Wednesday, after decorating the Van with “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” “HONK if U heart JESUS” “Dare you to Move” “F.U.S.I.O.N.” “L-D DEBATE TEAM” Our FUSION Logo among other things, asking for God’s traveling mercies, we set out for Wake Forest, North Carolina. The joy truly is in the journey………

“We bow down and we worship you Lord…..” “Change my heart O God, make it ever new……” “My heart and flesh cry out for you the Living God” these are just a few of the songs that the girls led us into spontaneous worship. What a privilege to enter into the presence of the One who made us!

As we were cruising along, I asked Karen if she had picked up Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. Well, not only had she bought, she had brought it with her to read. Karen, Tom and I continued talking. Sometimes on these kinds of trips Karen would read aloud to Tom. Since, we are both Wild at Heart families, we were already familiar with the Eldredges, so when asked, I said I would be happy to read it out loud.

“She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with Eve. She is the Master’s finishing touch………Eve is…….Breathtaking.
“Given the way creation unfolds, how it builds to ever higher and higher works of art, can there be any doubt that Eve is the crown of creation? Not an afterthought. Not a nice addition like an ornament on a tree. She is God’s final touch, …..Step to a window, ladies, if you can. Better still, find some place with a view. Look out across the earth and say to yourselves, “The whole, vast world is incomplete without me. Creation reached its zenith with me.” Captivating page 25
To say the least us 5 girls were feeling pretty built up by this chapter. Every woman needs to know that she too is captivating. For every woman reading, you are captivating!

This is just a mere morsel of what we read from this refreshing and inspiring book, written together by a man and wife. Our first reading we only got through the first 42 pages. We had interrupted with songs and stories. On page 42 I had just read, “Whatever else it means to be feminine, it is depth and mystery and complexity, with beauty as its very essence. Now, lest despair set in, let us say as clearly as we can:
Every woman has a beauty to unveil.
Every woman.”
As I was reading this very line, Tom was pulling over. A woman was hitch-hiking in the dark and we would be the ones to get her home. Kim was a beautifully wounded woman who only wanted us to take her to the next exit but Tom got her to let us take her to her street. Our time with her was brief but it touched the hearts of our children. There were only a couple more paragraphs on the page. Grace interrupted, “Mum, could we pray for Miss Kim?” Of course, honey, let me finish the page. So, I did and then we found ourselves in the Loving Presence of our Abba Father, coming to Daddy with a burden for Kim, another daughter of Eve, another beautiful woman.