Weekend Update! Aug 24-27

 

Hello Everyone,

Wow, what a weekend! Dad, Jacob and Susan picked us up from biking on Thursday and we went to our northern campsite. When we woke up on Friday morning, we started setting up camp so it would be ready for when the teens from our church (New Durham Chapel) got there in the evening. We ate lunch and had devotions. We decided not to go biking and save the last leg of the trip for Monday. We had a lot of rest from pumping up mountains. We were able to do this because we biked enough extra throughout the week so we could spend time with everyone that joined us at the campsite.

The teen group showed up for dinner and we had spaghetti and hot dogs. We ate lots of Smores with peanut butter and had a great time talking around the campfire. The girls all slept in one tent and the boys slept in another. The adults had their own. It was a lot of fun. The guys pulled a prank on the girls by putting rocks underneath our pillows. We found them and tried to not make a big deal about it so they wouldn't know their prank worked. One of the girls didn't find any rocks in her pillow, but instead they were in her sleeping bag. There was a lot of commotion and the boys wished us a goodnight sleep and said, "Sleep well. Hope you sleep like a rock. " They also sang us a goodnight song, "We will we will rock you..." We couldn't help but laugh. A harmless prank, but the girls had to get them back . We came up with the idea of making posters.  We made them and got my dad to post them in the boys bathroom for the whole camp to see. Another harmless prank. :) We had lots of fun!! We also took the rocks they had used from under our pillows and put them outside the boys tent in the shape of a heart. After it was all done we got a message outside our tent door from the boys.

Everyday we had a devotional together and prayed for the day. It was great to spend time in God's Word and have a common bond with everyone. God has blessed us in so many ways on this bike trip and spending time with friends has been a bonus.
Saturday we played ultimate frisbee and got hot and sweaty. To cool off we went fishing and swimming. We had a blast. Some of us even jumped off the bridge that was 18.2 ft high. (yes we measured it) We had pizza for dinner. On Sunday we had a campfire service about standing up for what you believe in. Being like Christ and not forming the patterns of the world when under pressure, at school, or in daily life. We went swimming again and played some games. The rest of my family, Mom, Raychelle, and Jewellee drove up and we all went to show them where we jumped off the bridge and went swimming. Then the teens unfortunately had to leave and go back home. The whole family was at camp and we had a great supper together.

Monday morning it was raining so we didn't start biking as soon as we would have liked. We go to sleep in a little bit and made breakfast. Then after we cleaned up and packed the bikes in the van we drove to our drop off spot. It had stopped raining, but there were some pretty dark clouds. The Grosvenors ( family friends, who help the Simons when they come to the USA) and Lindsey (their granddaughter and our friend) came to High Point to cheer us on. The entire day was pretty much uphill. It started raining and they offered to take us to the top, but we were already drenched and kept pushing ourselves to climb the mountain. It rained for only 15 minutes, but it was enough that we were soaked. It was really hard, but we are glad that we kept going and didn't stop to get a ride. We can say that we went from Cape May to High Point, New Jersey in 10 days. Praise the Lord we made it. I personally didn't think I was going to make it at one point up a hill. It was hard!! I had to stop and catch my breath. Tommy quoted Isaiah, "Those who wait upon the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." I am so thankful for Tommy and his encouragement to me. He is my little brother, but I look up to him in so many ways. We didn't talk much because of the altitude and it was harder to breathe, but the entire time I kept thinking about bible verses we had been memorizing and praying that God would give me the strength to get to the top and He did. We did 27 miles all uphill. When it was time to go back down to go to the picnic area to eat, Tommy and I biked down. We even had to use our brakes.
Our family had a picnic lunch with the Grosvenors and Lindsey and talked about the trip. It was so encouraging to have our family and friends there cheering us on as we biked to the top of New Jersey. We will always remember the trip and all the adventures and blessings that God has given us along the way. We hope that you too have been blessed through this trip. Thank you for all of your prayers and support to us. This trip has helped the Pastors in India by providing them with motorcycles. We hope to post a picture of them and their motorcycles once they receive them. With your help we have raised enough money for 6 motorcycles and still counting. This trip was an adventure that Tommy wanted to do for quite some time and thankfully we were able to not only have fun, but also share the love of Christ with people along the way. Your gift will make an impact on other peoples lives that you and I may never meet. We have been truly blessed. All the glory be given to our heavenly Father who made this all possible.

If you happen to be someone who is following us on this blog and you don't understand why 2 youngsters would bike from the bottom to the top of New Jersey; get up early instead of sleeping in;  and break a sweat everyday to give money to people they don't even know across the ocean in India, please contact us. We would love to explain the gospel more clearly so that you too can share in the greatest gift of love ever given to us. We would be more than happy to explain the joy we have through Jesus Christ and the gift of love He has given to us.

Once again Thanks for all of your prayers and support on this adventure. We hope to have a picture of the pastors soon!
Love in Jesus- Tommy and Anna Grooms.

The pictures are from Friday to Monday-

SMORES!!

Doing the dishes

Are you finished drying the dishes we washed? We want to go swimming!



Where we stopped on Thursday and started  Monday

Storm clouds are coming!

 






Almost there!





When we got to the monument we climbed the 240 stairs to the top.

We made it!!