Day 9

Big day today! I was up and out the door by 7:45 and caught the bus to the Greyhound station to pick up my ticket for tomorrow. Then it was a half hour wait until my bus came to go to West Edmonton Mall, so I found a couple geocaches! :)

Made my way to the mall just as it was opening, so I stopped at A&W for some breakfast. Stopped at Bentley's for a carry-on size luggage case, then got to shopping! I bought a few things today - some books, some CDs, a dragon sweater, a few gifts.

It took me four hours just to do the first floor.

Four hours!

FOUR!!!

Sigh...

I did enjoy a good chunk of time in Chapters. I saw the "Humans of New York" book there, I kind of flipped through it a bit. A picture that really stuck out for me is this one:

The caption beside it said this:

'Make sure you can see the bag.'
'Oh, I didn't realize you were advertising something.'
'Isn't everything beautiful advertising something?'

Snap.

After the mall, I headed down to Beth's work, she gave me a tour before we headed out for dinner. It looks really good in there! Beth told me that she did a lot of the painting in there herself - all the non-institution-white colour, that is lol! And it looks really good! This was my favourite wall:

It says this:

Our HEARTS are made for WORSHIP

Hear and understand me.
Even though you disagree, please don't make me wrong.
Acknowledge the greatness within me.
Remember to look for my loving intentions.
Tell me the truth with compassion.

Our HANDS are made for SERVICE

Hear the Word of God in your life.
Always recognize Jesus in others.
Now is the time to be present to God.
Do you reflect God's love to those around you?

But my absolute favourite wall item I saw was a picture in Beth's office. It actually hit me really hard, I almost started crying right there...

The text beside it said this:

Forgiven
This picture reveals the heart of God toward you. As you look at the painting, you see not only Jesus wrapping his arms around a fallen man. You see Him wrapping his arms of mercy around you. Your eyes say "Jesus is holding a broken sinner." Your heart says "Jesus is holding me." When you look at the cross you will never need to question if He loves you. He came for you; He died for you; He lives for you. What a tremendous price has been paid. More than all the riches in the entire world. This price was paid so that you could know the joy of being forgiven.

Oof.

For dinner we went to Swiss Chalet, and spent some time just catching up. It was so great! :) Then we went geocaching, and we found one right at the corner by the restaurant! :)

We also went down by the river to find some more, but we couldn't find any. I had gone down into the bushes to hunt for it, couldn't find it, then couldn't find my way back up again! Made my way back to the car, where Beth had gone to wait for me, and there was a fruit truck there so I bought us some nectarines. Soooo tasty! :D

Then she gave me a ride back to the house, and here I am!

Tomorrow's probably going to be a long day too. I head out at 7am to catch my bus down to Red Deer. Soooo excited to see the Scotts!!!!! :D So I'm gonna jump in the shower then head to bed. Goodnight!