We began the day walking the "Freedom Trail" - a 2.5 mile trek that takes you through downtown Boston to see the locations - meeting houses, homes, churches - where the cause of America's independence was formed. Incidents like the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn of British troop movement all come to life here. It was a great way to begin the 4th of July! Following lunch at Quincy Market, we took a subway to visit Harvard University.

Around 4:00 pm, we headed from Harvard to the campus of M.I.T. We met Michael Dean there. He is a missionary with the North American Mission Board, seeking to reach international students in the Boston area. He serves as a chaplain at M.I.T., and organized a 4th of July event and concert where we served around 100 students and their families hot dogs and hamburgers, played games, and presented an hour of patriotic and worship music, celebrating freedom as Americans, and freedom in Christ. It was a great beginning to our concert ministry.

After we packed up and cleaned up, we headed to the Charles River to watch the Fireworks. Click here to listen. We waited for two hours, along with a million or more other folks. It was really crowded and we were really tired! We walked back to our hotel at 11:00, which took almost an hour. We were all EXHAUSTED after the 16 hour day - but we made a lifetime of memories!

We have enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather - clear skies and high temperatures in the 70s! God has been gracious to us in keeping the rain away - it has rained here for the last several weeks and the locals say this is the first break they have had.

On Sunday, we begin our partnership with Timothy Baptist Church - and African-American congregation in Roxbury, MA. We will worship with them and get familiar with the community we'll be serving in this week. Our next concert is Sunday evening at the bandstand on the Boston Common.