Jennifer: We pray every night, but it’s pretty much a ritual and not a time when we really share burdens. We need to take time to keep doing this when we’re back home. In fact, we have Susie’s one-year devotional book, and we’re talking about doing that after we finish Closer.

Stephanie: One thing that’s helped me grow closer to God on this cruise is the services. I’ve really enjoyed worship and have taken it as a time to honor God. Back home, I just hurry through the worship part and concentrate on the speaker, but worship is really getting to me now. I’m paying attention to the words, and I’m growing spiritually because of it.

Jennifer: I have three children, so it’s been really special just to spend time with Stephanie this weekend. In one service, Angela Thomas talked about our beauty, and I often tell Stephanie how beautiful she is. It’s a hard thing for women to believe, and it can become a barrier between them and their heavenly Father. So I want Stephanie to know that she’s beautiful on the inside and the outside. Outward beauty is more alluring when the inner beauty is clean and spotless.

Stephanie: A lot of times the media discourage me and project things that are so objectionable to our Christian minds. I tend to compare myself to who and what I see in the media. So when my mom tells me I’m beautiful, it definitely helps! It’s also been fun to see my mom as a real person instead of just my mom.

Meet Kim and Laura Holdham, Peoria, Ill.
Laura: I saw the info about the cruise in Brio and thought it would be an incredible thing for my mom and me to do, but I wanted to surprise her with it. So I started baby-sitting and doing extra chores to get money for the deposit.

On Labor Day weekend, I collected all the kids in our neighborhood and announced we were going to have a huge lemonade stand and make lots of money so I could surprise my mom and take her on this cruise.

Kim: They had this amazing lemonade stand and had another one two days later and raised more than $500. Of course, I didn’t know why she was raising money; I could just see that money was coming in. So I said, “Laura, the money you’re making should be sent to the Katrina victims, don’t you think?” (The hurricane had just recently happened.)

The look on her face expressed, Yeah, you’re right. It really should be used to help others. The church youth group matched [the lemonade money] for a contribution of $1,000 — which was great, but she was still no further along with this surprise cruise.

Laura: I asked every day if anything had come in the mail for me. And Mom kept saying no. I finally said, “Forget it. I was all excited and was trying to save for this cruise for the two of us, and I’ve been waiting for the brochure so I could send in a deposit. But it’s not meant to be.”

Kim: Well, we get mail all the time for stuff we can’t afford to do. I did remember seeing it and thinking, We can’t afford to go on a cruise, so I threw it away. But Laura said she had felt strongly that this was something she’d love for us to do together. So I reminded her that God works miracles and provides in amazing ways, and we began praying about it.

Laura: The very next day, Mom was offered a short job to direct “The Music Man” with kids who have disabilities. We both knew it was the Lord’s way of providing money we needed for the cruise.

Kim: And then Laura got a call from church asking if she’d provide tutoring services, and we realized that God was going to provide what we needed. There are so many more miracle stories of how God continued to bring in the money for us.

Laura: We’ve grown so much closer! And we had an awesome dinner table with other moms and daughters on the cruise. We went dancing with them at 1 a.m. one night!

Kim: And another day we swam with stingrays and rode motor scooters in the Bahamas! The highlight, though, has definitely been the worship and the services Brio provided.

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