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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Join the Applause

Have you heard of "Join the Applause"? It's a group started on Facebook. The purpose of the group was to gather somewhere beautiful this past Saturday, and applaud, or praise God as the sun set. They had groups all over the world, so the thought was that starting in New Zealand, as the sun set around the world, there would be 24 hours of praise!
As the day progressed yesterday, many pictures were posted of different 'Join the Applause' groups in their beautiful spot from all over the world.
My friend Kim, of Scattered Stones invited people to join her family and take part in this.
We met at a park on the shore of Lake Michigan.


The walk to the beach

The view of the lake from the top of the dunes. Notice the sky? It didn't look like there was going to be much of a sunset.


Beautiful dunes



A beach is a great place to relax and enjoy part of God's creation.
Here's Kim's husband Steve playing with Chloe, Bekah and Kaitlyn.


The girls found this bug near the water. He was about 2 inches long! He's a part of God's creation too, but I don't find him too pretty!


When the sun was almost down, it peeked through the clouds for several minutes.



Even after it went below the clouds, the sky looked beautiful.


This is what we saw when we turned around and prepared to climb back up the dunes to go home.


And here's the gorgeous color from the top.

It was a wonderful night, to sit with friends, enjoy such beauty and praise God!

18 comments:

Karin said...

Wish I was there - but just praised the Lord for letting me see it on here!

Beth said...

That last photo literally took my breath away. I figured you were leading up to something great, but that was truly breathtaking.
What a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing this with us.

A Stone Gatherer said...

O.K. I have to tell you those pictures just about brought tears to my eyes!!! I so enjoyed it! Love to praise God for his creation!!!

Hootin Anni said...

So very beautiful...and inspirational too.

PS...good luck with the dieting. I'm in there with you!!!

Connie said...

Only God can give us such beauty.

Jane said...

A beautiful night indeed!! They were lovely photos of a lovely and meaningful evening.
Jane

;) said...

Beautiful place and moment... Thanks for sharing :)

Pat said...

What a wonderful idea! I'm sure that tears would have been streaming down my face that evening..how beautiful!!

Jenny said...

I praise God people still find time to praise God. And is there anything more breathtaking than where sky meets water? The colors! The heavens declare the glory of God indeed.

And although I must say (because I never miss an opportunity to say) that I loathe Fakebook with the heat of a billion suns, uniting people in heartfelt praise of their Creator is one of the few positive uses of it.

Jenny said...

Oops! Forgot to say: Happy Monday, Mari!

Susan said...

This is so neat. I had not heard about it. Glad you shared.

Brooke said...

what a beautiful sky He painted!!

Shelly said...

Sounds like you all had a good time. Great pictures and what I like is that not one sunset is the same.

Penny said...

One day, I do want to ask God why he created bugs like that....Seriously.

Cherdecor said...

I wish we had known about it so we could have joined you in praising God as the sun went down. Maybe someone will start one by praising God as the sun comes up! Let me know if they do.

Nancy said...

What a way to Praise the Lord.....I have not heard of that Facebook group but it certainly was a good idea....

Those sunset pictures are gorgeous.....God just saying back to you guys....Love you......

Crown of Beauty said...

What a great idea it is to have 24 hours of praise all over the world, to thank God for the day as it ends!

And the pictures you took with your camera were all beautiful, Mari.

So beautiful, it once again gave me a longing for the beauty of our eternal home. Heaven says there is no night there, so the sun never sets, and in fact, there is no sun either, because it will be eternally bright in that place!

Thanks for this lovely post!

Love
Lidj

Kim said...

I've been out of the loop and hadn't heard about this, but what a great idea! And such a beautiful place to gather.