D-Troy-t

Hello again friends & acquaintances.
Here we are again in my blog.
Beginning from where we left off in Indianapolis: Monday rolled around and we got up & went into the city. As we drove around, all of our usual parking spots were taken and we literally could find no place free to park so being the rolling stones we are, we left for Detroit. The drive took about 5-5.5 hours. We actually are in a suburb called Roseville, about 15 minutes north of Detroit. So we pulled in about 6:40, just in time for Marc to go to the men's study. After study, Marc was asking the pastor where we shouldn't go in the city and he showed us on the map that we don't  want to be south of 8 Mile Rd (weird), but the area he showed Marc was pretty much all of Detroit! He told him definitely don't be there at night and that if we stop for any extended period of time, our wheels are getting jacked. Not might, will. Sheesh. So we headed over to the closest Wal-Mart to get ready for bed. Fortunately for us, there was a Starbucks across the street! Sweeeeet. They were already closed, which was fine, we just wanted to sit outside & play cards anyways. (Usually we play in the back of the van with the light from the street light-not the most comfortable lol.). So anywho, we played a game of Three's and then started walking to the van. Unbeknownst to me, Marc had been eyeing a new target! So as I went to the van, he went and started talking to this group of 5 people that had been standing in the parking lot hanging out for a little while now. Most of them go to church and all of them believe in God in some aspect so Marc talked to them for a good little while and made friends! Eventually I was summoned out of the van lol so I joined the conversation and helped Marc to explain something. Shortly after, everyone split & we left as well. 
On Tuesday we headed into Detroit! Of course, in the daytime. We were really only downtown so we didn't see a whole lot of typical Detroit but we did see a few buildings soaked in graffiti with every single window busted out. I think it will make me really sad when we eventually do drive through and see the poverty. So as we drove down the street we saw this sign: "Tunnel to Canada". Craziness! Canada was just across the river! I mean, we could see it!!! How awesome!
So we found a parking spot close to the river & walked for forever! As we were passing the General Motors building, we went inside to use the restroom. It was so weird inside....we couldn't figure out if it was the GM office building or if we were in a small mall. There was a food court & shops all along the first level-even a restaurant and a salon but on the second floor there was nothing in any of the windows. I think it must have been an office building because towards the back there was a showroom that had a bunch of different cars in it. It was weeeeeird.
So we kept walking but eventually we just couldn't take it anymore. The beautiful blue water next to us was taunting us, so we walked back to the van and then drove to a little island called Belle Isle that has a swimming beach and we got in the water. It was....beyond great. I had been hot and sweaty and sticky for the past 2 or 3 days because the humidity never lets us. I felt weird, I was fighting grumpiness every second, and I just wanted to cool off. This had been my constant mindset, so to be in the water was a gift from God. We hung out for an hour or two then got out to eat. It was really cool because they had a bathhouse, which was basically a big locker room (minus lockers) where you could change & use the restroom. Best part: it had 3 showers! So not only did I get to cool off in the lake, I didn't have to have lake water all over me for the next week! It was seriously amazing. When I came out of my shower, Marc was talking to this guy who sitting there with his little girl and they were talking about getting out of Detroit. Understandable. Marc had shared with him the gospel, which he had heard before, but he was trying to watch his other kid so Marc didn't want to take up too much of his attention. From there, we found a chill spot on teh island kind of away from everyone to have some time together to chill out. I was crocheting while Marc played his guitar (I know, we're going to make such an awesome old couple!). After a few minutes, this car pulled over and came over to where we were with his guitar. We were parked a good bit away from the curb, so we saw him coming with his guitar case.....awww he wanted to jam! :)
This encounter was such a blessed one! This guy (his name was either Kevin or Patrick, I thought I heard him say both) came up and was saying that he heard Marc playing as he drove by & had to stop and come see. So he busted out his guitar and started finger picking and just playing around but it sounded phenomenal!! He was great! We talked for a couple of minutes and we found out that he was a born again Christian also! What a serious blessing! He was only there for about 4 or 5 minutes, but when he left we thought of the verse that talks about "you never know when you're entertaining angels". We were really touched and it's funny because nothing miraculous happened, it was just one person showing love to others. So sweet.
It got later & Marc was done playing so we went to Starbucks to hang out. Shortly after we got there, one of the guys from the night before arrived as well. Let me tell you about Bryan. Bryan is like, the glue of Starbucks. He hangs out there usually twice a day and knows everyone! Seriously. I would say that 2 out of the 5 or 6 people who walk in say hi to him. Everyone who was there the night before that Marc was talking to all became friends with each other because they were friends with Bryan first! He is a super nice guy and an awesome believer. From what I've seen he encourages his friends in the ways of the Lord-what else is there!? :)So anywho, we hung out with him and his friend, Dana, for the rest of the evening and then it was off to Walmart.
Wednesday  was an interesting day. God is so good how he just shows us things. He uses us wherever we are. What a blessing to be used by God, seriously. You feel so unworthy, who am I that God would speak through me to reach people? He could send angels or even just boom His voice from the clouds, but He chooses to use us. What a marvelous blessing! And something else we've learned, is that ministry changes! God doesn't have a pattern, there is no formula that you have to follow. Today was so different, but so blessed.
So we got up in the morning and went to sit outside of Starbucks to have our studies because it was cooler than in the van. So we're sitting there and when I finished reading, I started crocheting again. Then these two ladies came over and started talking to me about what I was doing so I showed them a couple things and we got to talk for a couple of minutes. I didn't get to share too much about Jesus but at least one of them believed in God, for whatever that means to her life, but they left shortly after. Oops. I think that in talking to them, God made the point to me to not be so quick to make jokes about people because as they pulled up I had made a joke about the woman to Marc but then while I was talking to her, felt pretty convicted about it.  Oops again.
While I was talking to them, a guy came up and asked Marc for money so he got up and gave him food and the gospel too. Nice. By this point it's not even 10:00 yet. Shortly after they left, Bryan got there so he sat with us and we all talked some more. After a couple of hours, his friend, Heather, joined us. (She was there on Monday night, too, when Marc was talking to them.) By now it's probably around 1ish. So Bryan rolled out around 2, but Heather hung out for a little bit & I tried to teach her how to crochet, which can be a frustrating thing to learn, but she tried really hard! I think she got kind of frustrated and gave up, but it was cool because we started talking about God & the Bible and her beliefs about different things. I was able to really minister to her and point her back to the Bible. Without it, how can we know God? 
One thing that I will share about our conversation is something that I think a lot of people need to hear and I have touched on before, but in a different aspect. She was saying that to be called a Christian is a high calling that comes with a high standard and that it's hard to reach. I thought it was so awesome because so many people who call themselves a Christian don't realize that there IS a standard that so many Christians aren't meeting, nor are they trying! But Christianity isn't about being perfect, it's about striving to want what God wants, to have His heart & to love what He loves. You don't have to "fix" yourself before choosing Jesus, you just have to want to be different. Never let your imperfection keep you from God-that's why Jesus came, so that our imperfections wouldn't keep us from Him!
So that was fantastic. After she left, there were two gentlemen sitting pretty near us on the patio speaking a foreign language so Marc asked what they were speaking. Guess? Hebrew! And they were from Israel!!! How awesome is that!? So we got to talk to them for a while. They were Jewish by culture, but not really by religion. Really, only one of them was talking to us....the other tuned us out pretty quickly but our conversation with Dylan was a good one. He explained that in the Jewish culture, for God to come in the flesh would never happen. (Well that's what the Pharisees thought, too....) We talked about history and Jesus and prophecy and travel but, as they always do, he had to go. God is teaching us all the time!
It did break my heart a little bit to see these 2 men, 2 of God's chosen people, with such a lack of understanding of Him. Dylan had a head knowledge in a historical sense, but there was nothing in his heart but disbelief and doubts and his brother didn't care at all. It reminds me of the parable of the wedding feast. Sad sad sad. 
After they left (literally like 3-5 minutes), this woman, Melissa, came & started asking me about what I was crocheting. Here we go again! haha
So we talked for a while and I was so blessed again to hear her story. She is a born again Christian and was sharing with us about her husband who is Catholic but, from what I gathered, is realizing the need for a relationship with Christ in his life. Please pray for him (Scott) as he transitions, that he would just fall in love so deeply with the Lord. 
Man, what a blessed day. We were literally at Starbucks from 9/9:30 until 6:45 when we left for church and even though we weren't out in the city, we talked to about as many people as we would have anyways, but I just know that we left an impression on everyone that we talked to. God is good! He is giving us little nibbles of fruit here and there, and what a blessing to taste and see that the Lord is good!!!!
So then it was off to church for midweek service, which we thought started at 7 but it wasn't until 7:30 so we were early. We got out and were just standing around when this lady popped out of the door and asked us if we wanted to come over and shower and do laundry. At first we were confused but then we realized someone had to have told her about us! Turns out it was the pastor's wife. Makes sense :) so we went inside and she made me iced coffee :) what a sweet woman! We got to talking and she told us a little bit about how the Lord called them to live in a travel trailer and travel for seven years! With three kids! And I thought my life was chaotic! haha.
Their son, Jason, taught the study that night and it was really good. He taught through a few chapters of Exodus and the law and highlighted key points and prevalent themes throughout. It was really a blessing. 
After the study we went back to Starbucks to hang out with "the group" but left after about an hour to go to the pastor's house. They fed us sandwiches (mmmm) and then we watched Tim Hawkins who is just stupidly funny. So hilarious. Then we had ice cream & talked about the trip and their travels. It was really cool because they said so much that we could relate to! I felt like "ah, my people" lol and then it was off to bed!
Thursday was a different kind of day, also. Jason was working on recarpeting a house and asked Marc if he would be interested in helping, so he got up and was out of the house by 8. While he was gone, I helped Roseann (the pastor's wife) to clean her house and then I barbecued hamburgers for the first time ever. It was crazy. I was scared lol, but I did it! And they weren't even burnt or under cooked! .....as far as I know. 
So they guys came home to eat. I was excited to see my love again :) We spend all day, every day together so this was weird because we were put into these typical roles of the man being gone at work while the wife stayed home and cooked & cleaned and eagerly awaited her man's return. And I did! But then he left again :( He didn't get home until after 6 but it was super awesome to have been given an opportunity to work and earn money. I know he enjoyed it, also. So we had pizza for dinner (thank you Amo family!) and then Jason & Marc left to a men's study and I went to a young adult study that they've been having outside of Starbucks. The study was about evangelism but it was really cool because during worship, I was really touched. The Spirit moved heavily in my heart and I was so moved. It was the first time I had really felt "He put a new song in my heart". I don't know what it was, but it was amazing. 
After study, Marc & Jason met up with us at Starbucks and we hung out for a couple hours, talking and sharing and meeting cool new people. I must say, I love sharing the word of God and teaching people about it. And then it was off to sleep! (I don't know if we mentioned this already, but we're staying at the pastor's house, so this is the 2nd night of going to sleep with an air conditioner literally right over the bed. It's indescribably awesome to wake up cold and not sweaty.)
Marc was given another opportunity this morning for work, this time doing landscaping stuff which, thanks to his mom, he's fantastic at! Haha, a pro at pulling weeds. Poor guy. This time he was out of the house at 7:30!
And now you're pretty much all caught up. :)
Our ministry in Detroit has been much more geared towards discipleship and building people up in their faith than evangelism, but whatever God has for us is a blessing. We'll probably be here for a couple more days. We're hanging out with the group again tonight so pray that that will be a blessed time that edifies the body and glorifies the Lord.

hellooooo Michigan aka state #15

I had to.

WEIRD

that's the fist of Joe Louis.

see the bridge in the background? It goes to Canada!

inside of the General Motors building

Bryan!

Indiana-polis. The City of Indiana.

So this week has  been pretty rough emotionally, starting on Thursday. One of my really good friends from back home is getting married and try as I might, I could not find a way to get back home for it. :( It's hard because I already miss everybody so much but then to see their relationship from before it even started to them now getting married and missing it has been really hard. Then on Friday night, I got some terrible news from home. A woman that I worked with who is very near to my heart suffered the tragic loss of her daughter in a way no person should ever have to endure. I didn't really know her daughter, but my heart just broke for her. It was a very emotional couple of days, but through it all, God is so good. 

On Thursday morning, Jan & Rheanna (the pastor's wife & daughter) brought us lunch before we left! How sweet of them! Before taking off, we went to their house and got showered up and then we hit the road. The Indiana border was pretty close, but it took us another couple of hours to get into Indianapolis. By the time we did, it was around 6:00, so we just drove around the downtown area for a couple minutes and then found a Starbucks to chill at.  Like I said, Thursday was rough. The wedding had been on my mind all day but it didn't really settle in until when we laid down for bed. I was so upset. My good friend Heidi was able to console me a little bit so that helped, but I just knew I had to pray about it.

So Friday rolled around and Marc and I headed downtown to find a cool place to sit and read. We walked down from where we parked (far away as usual), and decided just to sit outside of a Starbucks while we had our studies. After about 15/20 minutes, this guy walked by & he asked us for money so he could go get a White Castle burger. Marc told him, "sorry man, we live in our van" and so he left. Almost immediately after, I looked down and read a verse that was just a few verses ahead of where I was at: 1 John 3:10b:

"Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother." So I looked around to see if he was still around and he was! Right when I spotted him, I told Marc, "I think we should help him" and he said that's what he was thinking, too. So we got up and started  walking with him down a couple of blocks to White Castle. As we walked, Marc told him, "I want you to know the reason why we're helping you," and he told him what the verse said. Then he asked me to repeat it and when I did, his eyes started getting watery & glossy. He kept beating his chest saying, "That verse was for me. That was for me, man." I honestly think that this man, Kevin Griffin, needed a touch from God so badly that any verse would have made him weep, which he did. We got a few more steps and he kept telling us that that was his life & the verse was for him, that's what he needed to hear. Then he sat down on the ground, crying by this time, and he said, "It's not even about the White Castle anymore, it's not even about the White Castle" and as he cried, he poured out his heart to us. He told us that he drinks to chase away his problems, but when he comes down they're still there, the drinking doesn't help. He told us that he was raised in a good family, his parents were good people, but he ruined his own life with drugs and that his kids don't trust him and he can't even see his grandbabies. He was so distraught at the thought of his 3 grandbabies and how he never sees them. There was so much pain in this man's life. He knew his Bible, he prays and thanks God every morning that he wakes up but, by his own admission, is afraid to go back to church because he thinks as soon as he walks in he'll be overcome with his sin. He kept saying to us, "man, you don't know the things I've done, what it's like when you have to sleep right here on this street. You don't know who's gonna try to get you and who you're going to have to get." We pointed him to Jesus as much as we could because He's the only one who can free him. So eventually got up off the ground and we stood in a circle and prayed for him. As Marc prayed, Kevin just started bawling even louder, right on the sidewalk in front of people, but it didn't matter because the Spirit was there and this man needed it so badly. He was crying so hard and loud that he kept trying to pull away but we just held his hands really tightly. It was amazing.

We did eventually make it over to White Castle. While Marc took him in to get food, I walked back to the van to get him a Bible & some extra food and water and then we all walked back towards downtown. He told us that he believed we were angels and that we had good hearts because nobody ever wants to talk to him. It was really a blessed situation. Part of the reason I think my heart was moved to help him in the beginning was because I saw him go from person to person asking for change and the first man he went to was typing on his phone and didn't even give him the time of day. He literally did not look up from his phone but gave him the hand, as if to say, "talk to the hand". The next guy was similar. Before he even said a few words the man just waved his hand at him to say no. It broke my heart-this is another human being who is hungry. We can so easily spend money at Starbucks as these men had to please ourselves, but when it comes to another person, those couple dollars are all of a sudden too precious, and this whole time, kevin just needed a friend. Praise the Lord. Remember that you pretend not to see a homeless person that you pass. So many times, a smile is so appreciated. They know when you're crossing the street to avoid them and when you roll up your window so you can pretend they don't exist. But they do, they do exist and God loves them as much as he loves you. Remember that.

After we left Kevin, we sat back down outside of the Starbucks and finished reading. As we were sitting there, I just kept thinking, "If I was home, I never would have had that experience." And all of a sudden I had peace about not being home. As hard as it still is, I know I'm where God has placed me, where I'm supposed to be and even though it's not what I would have chosen, God is sovereign & knows what is best for my life. Amazing.

So as I read on in my studies, here is what I read:

But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

Man oh man, I was relieved! I knew that if I hadn't spoken up to help him then read this I would have felt so low! But like I said, God is good!!!! So we finished reading and just as we were getting ready to get up, Marc says, "I think I'm supposed to talk to this guy next to us." There was a man sitting next to us who had been there since before we got there the first time. He looked to be Middle Eastern (turned out he was). So they talked about God & Jesus being the only way to heaven. Ali said that he believed in Jesus but he didn't really pray a whole lot and didn't really read his Bible, which is the story with a lot of people that we meet. Marc encouraged him in that and then he had to leave, so we left too. As we walked down the street, we noticed this entrance to a mall that you totally wouldn't have known was a mall. It just looked like businesses, but we went in to escape the heat. Before too long, we came across this guy who was trying to get me to let him straighten my hair. Creepy? Lol just kidding, but he started talking to us and had a lot of charisma. He asked us where we were from so we told him and asked him the same question back. Crazy story-he was born and raised in Israel and had a crazy thick accent! Awesome right?! Then he asked us why we were there. :) Weeelllll since you asked! We told him we were spreading the gospel and he asked what that was. So we told him! Of course, he had heard of Jesus but the only reason that he could give for why he didn't believe in Him was because he didn't, because he was a Jew. After a few minutes, he told us that he was raised Jewish so he is Jewish. If he was raised Muslim he would be Muslim, just like we were raised Christian, so Marc told him, I wasn't born a Christian, though. He looked confused and said, "then what were you?" "Nothing," Marc said. To which Nathan replied, "What you mean nothing? I do not believe that you can believe in nothing." So Marc says, "You don't believe that people can believe in nothing? Watch this." And he stopped this guy that was walking by and said, "Excuse me, do you believe in God?" And the guy didn't, point proven. It was really thought provoking, the idea that Nathan didn't believe that a man doesn't believe anything. It agrees with the verse that God has put eternity in our hearts. Unfortunately Nathan really only believes because he was raised in it. He says he prays in the morning, but when I asked him how he atones for his sin without sacrifice & without a temple, he said that his good works atone for it. Hopefully we left him with a few good points to think about. :)

And that wrapped up the mall! We then walked down to the capitol building. Fortunately for my feet, it was close! We saw the building (beautiful) and then we were done! So we walked a little farther down the street to this huge monument which, we found out, was the Civil War Memorial. So we went in there....not a whole lot to see, but then we got outside and Marc started talking to these two boy sitting outside who looked to be about 15 & 17. They both had mohawks & were wearing eyeliner. Kids these days, who understands them. :) They both agreed that at this point in their lives they probably weren't going to heaven and they said they were a little worried about it, but were super unresponsive to anything that Marc had to say. Of course, he gave them the gospel anyways & then we headed out to our second home away from home: WalMart!

After being there for a little while, the phone rang and it was a number I didn't recognize so I gave it to Marc.  Remember the kid in Wisconsin that said he drinks all day every day but was a believer? The one we gave the Bible to? He called and said that he wanted to change his life around and get serious with the Lord so he called to ask where he should start. How AMAZING! YEAH, praise the Lord, we finally get to see fruit! :) And it couldn't have come at a better time :) so they talked for about 30-40 minutes and then the Bucks was about to close so we packed up. Time for the next awesome thing:

The baristas had literally pulled almost every single thing out of the pastry case and asked if we wanted any because they were going to throw it all away. All of it. Oh my gosh! There was SO much food there, even unopened food! So we took everything they were going to toss and it ended up being over 60 items. Then we bagged almost all of them into about 8 different bags so we could pass them out the next day.

Man oh man, what a blessing of a day! Then that night was a little bit rough. I truly felt like the enemy was messing with us because after such a beautiful day of ministry, we just kept bickering out of nowhere and for things that didn't even matter and things were bothering me that were such little, nit picky things, I knew it was something else so I just prayed that we would be at peace and nothing would stir up dissension between us. So we were good after that but as we were getting ready for bed, I found out some horrible news. I really would appreciate if you guys could pray for this situation also, but a woman that I worked with at Islands lost her daughter in a horrific way the night before. She is such a wonderful friend and my heart just broke for her. I had only met her daughter once but I cried and cried for her loss. I know she must be worried about her grandbabies, too, as they live with her. Please, please pray for her. She does know the Lord, which gives me comfort because I know He can & will comfort her, but I can't imagine what she's going through. So that was another emotional night.  

Saturday morning we got up and went back downtown with all of the food & some waters & Bibles to hand out. Again, we sat outside of the same Starbucks to read. As we sat there, a guy walked by and said hi to us, which is unusual because Marc always is the weirdo that says hi to strangers first but they got to talking & this guy, Todd, told us that his apartment burned down in the fire that was downtown the day before. He wasn't quite done moving his stuff in, but all of his clothes were in the apartment so not only did he need somewhere to live, but he needed clothes. We offered him a bag of food, which he took, and started asking him if he goes to church. He does, which is awesome, so we gave him a new Bible because he lost his in the fire and off he went. Shortly after, this guy was walking by. We had seen him walk by earlier and he kinda looked homeless but we weren't really sure. This time, he stopped to pick up a quarter so Marc told him we had food if the guy needed some. He comes over and says, "Well, just so you know, I'm not homeless." Fail.  Lol, but he told us a little bit of his story & how he is a vet so he gets free housing but only gets $127 a month and needed a couple of dollars for cigarettes. Marc talked to him about the gospel for a little bit and the importance of cultivating his relationship with Jesus. As the talk winded down, he asked us if we could spare a couple of dollars, but Marc told him we have food & water if you want some, but we won't support a smoking habit. He took a water & off he went!

I'm going to format this part of the blog less like a story and more like bullet points, otherwise we'll be here FOREVER.

We walked around finding homeless people and this is who we talked to:

-Fred-believes in God & goes to church at Calvary every Sunday. Sweet.

-Liz & her friend Nate-Liz believes strongly in God and was saved back in 2005 before she became homeless. She had such a sweet personality! Her friend, Nate, who I'm unsure if he was homeless or not, said that he believes a little bit but isn't sure about anything specifically and is too busy to go to church. Marc did tell him the gospel but he didn't really seem interested to talk so we said bye and took off.

-this guy wasn't homeless-Marc stopped at a bus stop to ask him for directions. He was a rapper from AZ & came to Indy to bust into the music scene (?!?) but has an excited faith in God. Sweet.

-Willie. Willie was an interesting man. He was the token, Southern black guy from Memphis. His look, the way he was sitting, the way he talked. I swear he jumped right off of the pages of a comic book. He wanted money to get a bus ticket to Chicago so we offered him food, but he didn't want pastries, he wanted chili, so then we offered him water but he wanted soda. Such a funny experience. Marc told him the gospel and he replied with, "I'll tell you what Rev, you just go ahead and pray for me and I hope I make it when I get there." 

-Nelson was an older man who had a cute dog, Buster. He took some food & water. He did express a belief in God but said that he's too busy to go to church or to really read his Bible so we encouraged him by explaining that that is how we are able to know God.

-Walter was a man in a wheelchair selling newspapers right next to him. He took a bag of food and a water, but then could not get away fast enough. Marc shared as much as he could but all of a sudden it was time for him to be off, so he left.

-Across the street was another guy who's name I didn't get. He was pretty vulgar so I stood farther back and let Marc talk to him. He didn't seem to be too interested either, but Marc was able to still share with him. 

-Further down the same street was a lady sitting with an umbrella. Her fiance would come and go on his bike but stayed when we were there. She believes in God, but he doesn't really. We gave them the last of our food and shared with them for a little bit. We discovered that Nelson (see above) is her cousin and Liz (from much earlier) is their friend. They have this little community where they all share and help take care of each other. Nice. 

So we were out of food and water and tired so we went to the mall to sit and charge our phone. As we were sitting, a guy sat on the bench next to us and of course if anyone is in a 3 foot radius of us, they're getting the gospel! The man, Curtis, was homeless but a born again Christian. You could hear the joy in his words, he actually wanted to talk about the Lord. It was really cool. So they talked for FOREVER, then he took off. By this time we were getting hungry so we left to walk back to the van & get some food and then it was back to Starbucks. (For those of you who are just recently joining us & have missed the explanation of why Starbucks SO often, here it is: we have no place else to go! Lol. When you get off of work, you go home, you relax in your living room. Well, we have the van to sit in for hours and do nothing. Sound boring? Yeah. So we get a $2 drink to share and get free refills on it the whole night while we read, blog, and make videos. This blog is brought to you by the Bucks! It's pretty much the cheapest option for us.)

After they closed, Marc's video was still uploading to YouTube so we were sitting outside, in range of the free wifi. :) Just after we got settled, these 3 kids walked out who were about 16. Marc started asking them questions and then asked if anyone has ever told them about the gospel & Jesus Christ. All of them were Catholic but two of them (Reuben & Cynthia) said no, but Omar (unless I mixed their names around) said that just a few days ago his cousin's bf's friend (or something) was telling him all about it and so he had been looking into it and Christianity was the best option. How cool, you could see that God was trying to get a hold of him because he remembered so much of the other conversation and was very interested in it. We talked for a good amount of time and asked them if they had ever accepted Jesus but they didn't really know what it meant. We explained what it meant to have Jesus as your savior and gave them these little printouts to take with them of "How to become a Christian" and "How to grow in your Christian faith". Please pray for them, I feel as though God is going to do big things in them! Hopefully soon!

Then came Sunday morning. We went to church, called our Dads, and hung out a park. That was about it, very uneventful. It was super hot & humid at first but we chilled in the shade for a little while and God sent us a glorious breeze and we felt much better! But man oh man, did I wish I was at home for a bbq today! Dad's hot links are so stinking delicious and I have been craving them for a couple weeks now! Oh well, what's another 10 months? Lol

If you are of the praying persuasion, you can pray for us for a few things, if you so please. ;)

1-my dear friend who's daughter passed, for comfort and strength to raise her grandkids

2-when to leave Indiana. We feel like we can move on, but we also feel like we are getting antsy so we're not sure if it's of us, or of God.

3-we're antsy! I don't want to rush through this trip because I'm in a hurry to get home. I don't want to miss one day that God has set up for us, especially because I'm in a hurry.

4-the next place we're going to is Detroit! Detroit has been ranked in the top 5 or 10 for highest crime rate in America for a REALLY long time. Please pray for safety & provision as we get there.

5-after Detroit is Ohio & with 4 major cities, we're not sure where God would have us go. We need direction!

6-continued provision-we are constantly relying on the Lord & He always comes through for us.

7-I'd like to take a shower soon, but that's the least of my worries ;)

Talk to you in a few days friends! I know I've said this before, but if you're thinking about us, shoot us a text! Or call us! It brightens my day so much to hear from home and to know that we're not forgotten. <3

I didn't feel like adding the photos to the middle, so here they all are at the end. :)

oh yeah, crossing the border

weird

Civil War Memorial/Museum

Colts stadium

an awesome mural we saw

capitol building!

this was carved into the capitol building

aayyyblinkin!

oooooh preeeeeetty

WE GOT TO SIT IN THE CHAIRS!

They never let us sit in the chairs!

so they say, but do they?

this plaque was actually in a few different places.

oh yes, they let me wear the robe!!!

oh happy day!

another pretty shot of the interior

heeeeeeey!

this guy has an awesome story.

Look it up on Google.

a better shot of the memorial

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

all the food we were blessed with!

mmmmmmm. dinner. :)

Milwaukee to Chicago!

Alright! Milwaukee! 

Like I said, we got there on Sunday but took the day off to relax by Lake Michigan. (I know, rough life.) :)

On Monday we went to "the beach" which actually was pretty cool. It made me feel like I was back home because you look at the water and you can't see the other side. It was pretty cool. So we walked around for a bit but it was kind of hard to find the right people to talk to. We didn't want to go up to people who were laying out cause that's just kinda weird, so we just walked around trying to get a feel for the area. We stopped to use the restroom and when I came out, Marc had struck up a conversation with this guy who looked to be about 20/21. He was in school for Biology but still knew there was a God, but wasn't quite sure what exactly He was. It was cool that he recognized there had to be something, that's much closer than most scientists get. The conversation didn't last a super long time cause the guy was eating & his friend came over and kinda butted in so we left shortly after, but Marc was able to share the gospel with him.

So we kept walking down the beach when we saw this guy sitting out on the rocks, gazing into the yonder & Marc knew that he was next! He looked like he was kind of having an emotional day, so I stayed on the bench while Marc had "guy talk" with him and they talked for at least 45 minutes, maybe even an hour. 

As suspected, his girlfriend had just broken up with him so he was doing reflecting. They shared back and forth on what their beliefs were (he was a sikh) and how to know truth. From what I gathered, it was a very blessed conversation. By the time they were done talking, we were freezing! So we headed to the Bucks to catch up on life. We met a couple of the employees who were really nice! They gave us a heads up on things to do in the city & where to sleep. Weirdly enough, you can't just park anywhere in the city overnight, you have to have a parking permit. Dumb. Not that it matters much to us because we sleep in the Walmart parking lots, but still, that is ridiculous. I guess it's true, they will charge you for anything they can nowadays!

So that was Monday. On Tuesday we went to get our van looked at. For quite some time now, we always smelled coolant when we were driving because of the coolant leak we had. Well now, we noticed that it was  starting to leak on the running board inside of the vehicle. So lame. So we took it in to get checked out. We were there for about 3 hours altogether. What happened was that the heater core was leaking and the cost to fix it would be about $600 to fix, maybe more, depending on how long it takes. Our other option would be to bypass the heater which would just be the cost of labor and only take about an hour. Sooo we decided to just bypass the heater. Three hours, $188, and no heater later, we left and headed back to the park next to the beach. As we walked to the art museum, this guy was coming toward us and before Marc could even get a few words out to give him a tract he was refusing, but it was really weird. He acted like we were trying to give him the plague or something, it was actually kinda funny. 

the art museum!

a super sweet house that faced onto Lake Michigan

skipping stones at the lake

the Milwaukee skyline

Well the art museum wasn't free so we walked back & sat in the park & had a study together. When we were done, we went to the car to get something and noticed that it was leaking. Still. Blah. So we headed back to the shop to see what they could do. Fortunately, there was nothing wrong. The leaking was just fluid  that was still in the lines. As soon as it was flushed out, we would be good to go. Phew, crisis averted. 

On the way back to the beach we stopped at Whole Foods to get some milk for breakfast since we were out. As we walked out, there was two guys standing there hanging out so Marc struck up a conversation. It was sad cause the one guy started by saying that for fun he just drinks all day, every day but later when Marc asked if he is a believer he said yes! He believes that he is going to heaven and he believes in God. This is probably one of the biggest issues we run into on this trip. A lot of people don't know what it means to be a Christian-so many people think that just because they believe in God or go to church that that means they are a Christian, but it doesn't. Believing in God is a decision to live for Him, to do the things that honor Him. Getting drunk is not honoring to the Lord, swearing  every other word is not honoring to the Lord, and living with your bf/gf isn't either! Following God doesn't mean that we will be perfect, but we should at least be striving and when we are not it is apparent. Jesus himself said that you will know a tree by it's fruit. So the things that we do and the way that we act say more about our relationship with God then our words do. Talk is cheap. Live for God or stop saying you are a Christian, because you give a bad name to those of us who are. 

That was what we came across with these 2 guys. They, like so many others, don't know what God expects of them because they don't read their Bibles. We shared a little bit longer and were able to give them a Bible so hopefully they'll read. The one we actually gave the Bible to seemed really interested to read it-he asked twice what books he should read and where to start so that was cool. Pray for him.

As we continued walking back to the van, this guy stopped us and asked us for money. This is another popular one: "Spare some change for a homeless vet?" The first thing Marc said to him was, "are you drunk man?" My bold husband lol. He was able to talk with him and share with him for a couple minutes but he was pretty incoherent so we gave him a tract & what little food we had in our bag then headed out back to the beach.

We found a spot to chill (a bench in front of the walkway) and Marc played his guitar, saying hi to people as they walked by. Our first conversation was super blessed. These 2 guys were walking by just after Marc finished a song so he started talking to them. I think their names were John and Jihan (?) but I can't remember. (If you're reading this, sorry if I butchered that!) But they had both been to church many times. One was mentored by a Christian man for a while so that was a really good base. I couldn't quite tell what their background/beliefs were, it seemed like they believed in God but I don't know how serious they were about following him. I kinda got the impression that they were trying to get back into following Jesus, or at least knew that they should. Either way, the conversation was a good one! 

The next guy that came along was named Jay. He's from DC but was out visiting, maybe moving. As Marc started to share with him, he told us that he was a believer. Sweeeet. I think part of the reason that God has intended for this trip (but who really knows) is to encourage others, which is what Jay said. He felt like, from us talking to him, that he needed to step it up. He was also talking about how he's at the point in his life where he knew he had to be more serious with God, which is awesome!

That was pretty much the end of Tuesday. Wednesday morning we had a chill morning-the type we look forward to when we get home. We sat at Starbucks and read our Bibles. Marc read the newspaper and I blogged. It was nice. Something about being up in the morning is so fresh.

Around 11 or 12 we headed out on our way to Chicago with a pit stop at the Jelly Belly warehouse! Where they give free tours! And free candy! :)

a sweet portrait made out of Jelly Belly's!

sample counter where you can sample all of the flavors!

So that was awesome. Then it was on to Chicago! Man oh man, let me tell you. We learned early how expensive Chicago is! We had to pay almost $5 in tolls on the way into the city before we had even stopped anywhere! Now, $5 may not sound like a lot to you, but I think in terms of burritos-that's 4, maybe 5 burritos, which I don't buy anyways, but still. When you almost never spend money, $5 is a lot to spend and have nothing to show for it. Moving on. We were actually headed to a suburb called Blue Island because that's where the church was. Initially we were going to go to a different one, but I don't think they had a Wednesday night service so we headed to Blue Island instead. What should have been an hour and a half to maybe a 2 hour drive actually took us about 3 and a half hours because of all of the traffic. Traffic like I haven't seen since home! Eventually we got there around 6:15 so we headed out and got some free pizza hut (because Jesus loves us) and then made it back to church. They were showing a video on the persecuted church in China which was really cool just to see the passion these people have.

Afterwards we met a few people including the pastor (Steve Miller -awesome) & his wife (Jan) & daughter (Rheanna). Super nice. It's totally crazy because they have a daughter who lives in Eureka, which is the world's smallest town ever, where I grew up in Montana! Isn't that crazy! But anywho, we also met these two officers who had stopped by on patrol. They were asking us if we needed any recommendations of things to do and after talking for a little while they offered to get us food. Sweeeeet. Talk about awesome!

So they left & came back and had gotten us White Castle burgers & fries AND pizza from a local spot called Beggar's Pizza. Talk about delicious. That pizza was so good! 

Then we spent the next hour and a half just standing around asking them all kinds of questions, anything you ever wanted to know from a cop but knew they wouldn't answer you honestly if you asked-those are the questions we got to ask. It was AWESOME. So eventually they left and we settled in for the night. We got to sleep in the back parking lot of the church so that was nice. :)

Thursday morning we headed out to the train station to catch a train into Chicago! We were told that's the way to go because there is a ton of traffic and you have to pay to park everywhere, so this was the easy option. Turns out to take the train is not as cheap as we'd have hoped. To get from Blue Island to downton Chicago (15 miles) cost $4.75....for a one way ticket and $9.50 for a round trip! Man oh man that is CRAZY! So we got a 10 ride ticket to share and that cost us $42.75. Still dumb, but it is what it is. And we were off to Chicago!!! 

We got off & were surrounded by tons of huge buildings. It was AWESOME. For some reason, I love buildings, which I didn't know until I saw the awesome architecture of older style buildings. So we walked for a bit and came across this:

Look familiar? It's the fountain from Married with Children. Awesome right!? From there we headed over to the Art Institute of Chicago. Pastor Steve works there and said he could get us into the museum so we were like, um yes please! So he got us into the museum and we saw all kinds of cool stuff. We even got to see some Picasso's! It was pretty legit! Thanks Steve! From there we headed out to what is fondly known as "the bean". So sweet! 

the bean!

the reflection of the city!

:) my love laughing at the bean!

As we sat, watching the bean and eating lunch, Marc began talking to this guy who didn't really understand what he was talking about so he left him a tract and headed back to the art institute. Earlier that day Steve invited us over for dinner so when he was off work, we caught the train back to his house with him and had dinner with him, Jan, & Rheanna. It was a really awesome time of fellowship & laughs. Then they drove us back to  the van afterwards where we thought it was bedtime but 5 minutes later there came a knock on the van window. It was Dave! Our neighborhood friendly cop! lol. He invited us over to shower (SWEET because this was Day #10 without a shower) and do laundry if we needed to. So we showered & hung out and parked the van in their driveway to sleep. A very awesome day. :)

Jan (Pastor Steve's wife) drew this....with colored pencils.

FANTASTIC

Friday we had to be in town by noon because our favorite pastor in Illinois wanted to take us to lunch! So we got up early (ish) and took the 10:00 train into town. We had about an hour to kill before meeting him so we went to the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) & we were going to go to the top but it costs $17.50 to take the elevator up! Stupid right?! So that was a no-go. 

So we headed to Potbelly's, a sandwich shop downtown, where we met up with Pastor Steve & Rheanna on their lunch break. They treated us to a SUPER delicious lunch-I had a veggie sandwich, Marc had a sandwich called "A Wreck" that had like every kind of meat possible. Then we zoomed over to this cupcake shop called Sugar Bliss to get cupcakes. Oh happy day!! I love cupcakes! Especially Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting! Mmmmmmmm. Thank you Steve :) 

awesome! they painted the vent to look like a submarine

mmmmmm cupcakes!

  

my Red Velvet & Marc's muffin

After cupcakes, we made a quick stop at FYE so he could get music then we walked them back to the art institute (where Steve teaches fashion design & Rheanna models for his class). He showed us his classroom (sweetness) and even blessed us with a bunch of art stuff! The best quality of colored pencils, pastels, drawing papers, just a bunch of stuff so that was really awesome. 

Steve's classroom

Rheanna posing for their 70's sketch

so in the library at the art institute, they have all of the copies of Mademoiselle

and Vogue bound into books.

crazy

this room is filled with clothes that are so expensive, you're not allowed to wear them.

So we said goodbye then headed out towards the blues festival. By this time the food & cupcakes had set in & we were sleeeeepy! So we stopped in a park to take a nap. While Marc slept, I used my new art supplies to draw & it came out better than I thought it would, but not good enough to post lol. After about 45 minutes to an hour, we got up & walked around. The city was hosting a "Blues Fest" so we headed towards all the people! One of the first guys that we came up to was a guy sitting by himself on the curb-aka target #1. Marc was talking to him for 10-15 minutes about the validity of the Bible, the "roads to God" theories, what truth is, and other stuff. From there we kept walking and saw this guy dancing in the middle of the street (which was blocked off) all by himself. Of course, I took this opportunity to take a video and then Marc tells me, "I think he's the next one I have to talk to." So the song ended and Marc went up to talk to him. A minute later I look over and he's dancing again, but Marc wasn't with me...so where was he?! So I looked a little bit in front of the guy and Marc is standing there, with his camera, recording the dude dancing. Awesome. And hilarious. I guess immediately he said that he didn't want to talk about religion but then asked Marc, "Why did you approach me?" And Marc said, "Because I saw you dancing." So that's when he asked Marc to record him. Good story huh? I thought it was hilarious.

Moving on, we walked through the park area and there was these 2 guys sitting there. As we stood there deciding where to go, Marc said he felt like he needed to talk to the 2 guys, so he did. Well, they were from Brazil and spoke terrible English so after a few different angles, Marc gave up but tried to give them a tract. The tracts that we use look like million dollar bills, so the guy asked, "For me? This is a gift?" but then he wouldn't take it. It was kind of a bizarre day.

Leaving the Blue's Fest, we walked out onto the main strip but stopped to watch a huge line of people play chess on these boards that were set up. As I sat there on teh planter watching Marc watching them play, a guy sat next to me & we started talking. His son had just started a game so we were there for a while. We talked about traveling and family and I told him about the trip & asked him about his beliefs. He is a Catholic but is really involved in his church. I didn't really get too invasive like Marc does, I don't think I'm that bold yet haha but we had a really great conversation & talked about the importance of living for God and serving Him. 

the first guy Marc talked to

the 2 Brazilian guys who didn't speak English

the chess tables

a better view

the boats near Navy Pier

Navy Pier (obviously)

tiiiiight

Marc's Chicago dog

we were crossing a bridge when we noticed a gigantic crack in the floor.

creeepy.

winding down Saturday night in Chicago :)

Dave brought us some more free pizza and Marc

practiced worship. 

After a game and a half we left & started walking back towards the station. By this time it was probably close to 5 or 6 and we were exhausted from a long day of walking, so we caught the train back to Blue Island and as we got off, Marc found another guy to talk to. I know, surprising right? Then we started walking back to the house where we were staying (with Dave & Kathy), when a truck pulled up next to us going really slow. Man, I hate when people do that! But we turned around and it was Kathy picking us up. Yeah! 

Saturday morning came and we woke up, ate breakfast, and read then headed out to the church to help the maintenance team but when we got there, nobody was there :( so we went to the train station. As we were driving there, I looked up the schedule-the next train was coming at 11:18. It was 11:17 when we pulled into the parking lot! Before we could even get anything together to make our mad dash, the train pulled out. Darn. So we got out & looked at the schedule-the next train was coming at 1:18. Totally lame sauce. 

While we waited, Marc played his guitar & we wrote postcards to kill time. Finally the train got there so we got into the city (about a 45-55 minute train ride) so we got off and walked FOREVER! to Navy Pier, just north of the downtown area. As we walked we met this family who was vacationing from Indiana (I think) and we walked and talked with them. They asked the usualy questions-are we wealthy? How many times have I wanted to kill Marc? How long will we be gone? Etc, etc, so it was cool we got to share with them the awesome works God has done with us and show them love.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived at Navy Pier. We walked around it for a while & Marc got a Chicago dog, something he had been looking forward to! As we walked on, we got to the end of the pier and sat between two parties of people. On our left were two guys, one was 16, the other 19 who were brothers there with their family. Marc struck up a really good conversation with them. They were Catholic ("I think" they said) and only went because their family did. They didn't really know to much but Marc was able to give them the gospel and why we need Jesus. It was a really cool conversation. We talked with them a lot about different things also, just life in general as well as Jesus. After about 15 minutes, they bounced out cause their family was leaving. We were both really surprised that the parents didn't say anything to us, but glad we were able to talk. The sister and her boyfriend were in close enough proximity to hear and the sister even joined the conversation from time to time so that was cool.

We walked back down the pier and came to a park where there was a fountain and a bunch of people playing in it. We sat on a bench and it wasn't too long before this guy sat next to us. He was probably about 17-19 and he looked really angry. Marc kept trying to talk to him but he didn't seem like he wanted to talk, he gave very short answers and just seemed really uneasy the whole time. Marc told me that he didn't like the uneasiness of the guy so I said let's go, but Marc wasn't done. He started talking to him about Jesus & gave him the gospel but he said he already believed in God and knew he was going to heaven so Marc tried to drive home the importance of relationship and being in right standing with God. After just a few minutes, his friends got up to leave and off he went. By this time it was getting late so we made our way back to the train station. As we did we stopped to talk to this guy about the train & ask him a couple of questions. We got to share with him what we were doing and, as a believer, he was super encouraged! It was a really great conversation, and then it was off to the train!

With my luck, we missed the first one and had to wait an hour for the second one, but it wasn't too bad. We walked around Chicago a little bit more then sat at the station. When we finally made it back to Blue Island, our awesome new friend Dave brought us some pizza :) then Marc practiced worship and we crashed in the parking lot. (We had been sleeping at Dave's house but we figured since we'd be there in the morning for church that we would just stay in the back.)

Soooo now we're at Sunday. Church was good-there was a guest speaker from Lima, Peru who gave a message on the 4 ways the Lord wants to speak to us. Very sweet. After church one of the ushers, Robert, invited us to lunch. He & his wife Lucy (and their two daughters) took us to Portillo's, a Chicago original!

We had a really good time with them! It was awesome to see how the Lord brought us together. On our way there they were telling us about this ministry that God has called them to where they are to go door to door and hand out Bibles but everytime they go online to buy Bibles, something comes up that prevents them from doing it. How weiiiiiiird, we had two boxes of Bibles in our van since Texas that we haven't been able to give out. :) So they blessed us with lunch & water bottles and we blessed them with Bibles! How cool to see the Lord's plan fall into place. :) After lunch, Dave invited us back over so we went to his house and hung out for the night, played games, ate dinner, watched TV, good times.

Monday! Monday was awesome! They had extra, free tickets for Six Flags so they invited us to go with them!!! How super fantastic is that?! I am always fascinated at how God gives us not only what we need, but many times things that we want, also. The rides were awesome! Scary, but awesome. So there is a ride there called "Superman" where you sit down & are strapped in and then lifted up so you are laying facing the ground & flying like Superman, so the entire time all of your weight is on the restraints with nothing below you except the ground. Well we go to get in & sit down, and they have to have us re-close our restraints twice and then made us get off because the harnesses weren't closing right. TERRIFYING right?! They did a test run then we got on & nobody died, thank God. The ride was scary enough but with the extra psychological factor, I was so afraid. SO. AFRAID. But then it was worse because Dave kept making stupid comments about us falling out. Man oh man.

So Six Flags was fantastic. Really hot but fan-freaking-tastic. Thank you Stone family for an awesome day.

Welcome to Six Flags!

don't tell them we took their picture!

apparently they hate cameras lol

this one...was awesomely scary

this is Superman, the ride where I thought I was 

going to die

Foghorn Leghorn! My homie!

who doesn't love Scooby?! 

you can't really tell but on the front left is Marc

and the front right is Kayla

Daffy! :)

Tuesday morning we got up and did laundry and then headed out to Wrigley Field!!!! We haven't really spent money on non-essential items on this trip and if we have, no more than a couple dollars here or there, but, as a baseball fan, Wrigley was a must! So we caught the train and made our way up town.

We got there shortly after 6 and bought our tickets. At first the guy told us that they didn't have two tickets together! What!? But after looking again, he found 2 that were cheap enough. When we got to our seats we found out why-there was a pole in front of us!!! But it wasn't bad enough to obstruct the game, I just had to lean a little bit. Man oh man, was I happy! I think there were a couple of bogus plays, but they were in favor of the Cubs, who won, so it was ok. We even got to hear the song they play when the Cubbies win! Very stinkin cool!

epic.

haha they gave away free hats, but Marc's didn't fit :(

this is why our seats were cheap! There was a pole in the way!

be still, my heart.

the legendary scoreboard.

the wall made extra famous when the world's dumbest 

fan upheld "the curse"

gotta love a night game

So that was it for Wrigley! All in all, a very awesome experience, which leads us to the present: Wednesday. This morning we had to get a battery for our van cause the one we have was going out :( at least we caught it before it completely died, so that's good! Then we practiced worship at the park. Marc is leading worship for the church tonight. :) What a blessing! 

As of right now, we're leaving tomorrow morning for Indiana. Keep us in your prayers, it will be sad to say bye to Chicago. The Stone family and the Millers were so incredibly awesome. It's so cool knowing that we have made such good friends in such a short amount of time all over the country. Pray for them, for blessing upon their families. :) Peace!