Illinois

We spent yesterday with Kelli’s parents, enjoying some down time to relax, talk, and catch up on a few things. Today we were off again for parts east in Illinois. We spent the morning in a small town of Illinois with Kelli’s aunt. Here Bethany find an appropriate sign.

Bethany with library sign

And the kids found a playground.

Kids on playground

After a visit to a nearby Pizza Hut, we said goodbye and headed to Wheaton. Our first stop was the Wade Center which features a museum for seven authors from the U.K., including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit which Mark and I recently read, as well as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. C. S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, the dramatized audio version of which our family listened to several years ago. The museum includes the wardrobe which was in the boyhood home of C. S. Lewis.

Kelli saw the lamppost!

Jonathan with the writing desk of C. S. Lewis

From here we headed across the campus of Wheaton College to the Billy Graham Center, where a museum is dedicated to the history of American Christianity.

Billy Graham Center

Bethany with banner of Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan in the “Heaven Room”

Our friends Austin and Heather Surls met us after our museum visits and gave us a tour of the Wheaton campus. Austin is now working on his PhD in Old Testament after studying at IBEX, seminary, and Hebrew University. Heather was a (great!) student at IBEX at the same time as Austin and later served a couple of years as IBEX volunteer after we had left. We really enjoyed our time with them and the wonderful meal Heather prepared for us.

Our family with the Surls at Wheaton College