Leaving Phoenix on Wednesday, February 22nd, we drove up the 17N through Sedona which was massively gorgeous. (I would post pictures but I don't have the right cord with me, which is why I will direct you to Marc's YouTube channel. Search "the urbanpilgrims" and you'll probably see my face.) Anywho, a very very gorgeous place to be but also very new age. We were there for a couple hours, just driving through and checking out the scenery and things. From there we headed to Flagstaff. We got into town around 5:45 and went straight to Calvary Chapel Flagstaff, hoping to catch midweek service. Turns out church started at 6:30, very sweet! We got to talk to Pastor Steve for a few minutes then went into church. He taught on Zechariah 14:12-end, all about end times. Some pretty sweet stuff. Afterwards we hung out and talked for over an hour with these 2 awesome young adults, Ryan and Alicia. Well, Ryan is still in high school but freshly 18 so I guess considered a young adult. :)Alicia treated us to Denny's (thank you!)and the 4 of us had a great time of fellowship.
The church let us sleep in their parking lot and the next day Pastor Steve told Alicia and Ryan that he was glad that we didn't stab them lol. After that I think they trusted us :)
We went out on Thursday to the college and the downtown. No bueno. We got pretty discouraged pretty quickly because of the lack of interest and the constant blow offs. Then Marc was stopped by this guy who asked for a dollar. For a moment it was a beacon of hope...until we realized that this drunk/high man was crazy! They talked for quite a while but at some point he took Marc's Bible and wouldn't give it back and started speaking all these blasphemies. Eventually he got it back and we kept walking down San Francisco St. Feeling pretty defeated, we headed back to the car and then back to the church, which kind of became our home base while we were in town. Again, we ended up hanging out with Ryan and his girlfriend, Katelyn. (I think I spelled that wrong. Kaitlin?)
The next day (Friday) we prayed and read a lot because we weren't sure if our rejection meant to leave town or to be more persistent. At the end of my reading, Paul shook the dust off of his sandals and left to the next city. A prayer answered! We decided to wait until after church on Sunday so that way we could get fed before we left.
On Friday night, CC Flagstaff had a night of worship called "Extol Him." It was such a blessing! Ryan is the church's worship leader and Kaitlin is one of the singers. Their 2 friends are also on the team, playing drums and electric guitar/vocals. It was really awesome to see 5 high schoolers rising to their calling and following after the Lord. That night, the daughter of the head pastor (Pastor Ron) invited us to stay at their house. They have this huge 5 bedroom house that Pastor Ron built himself! Four out of the 5 bedrooms are master bedrooms and their house is truly beautiful. That man has a gift! It was super awesome too because built into the shapes in the drywall, he imprinted the words "Jesus", "Father", and "Lord". Super awesome. That family/household (a few other people live there also) was such a huge blessing to us. Please pray that the Lord would bless them.
Saturday night we went to Ryan's 18th birthday party. It was '20's themed and they decked out the basement of the church. Marc was pretty much the only one who wasn't dressed according to the theme. (Don't worry, he doesn't read this blog so he won't know that I made fun of him lol) The party was great though. Ryan's girlfriend, in my opinion, stole the show with her adorable flapper dress, but that's just my opinion. We got to talk a lot with the pastor's son in law, Roman, then we ended up staying later to help put the church back in order. This is when I met my 3rd hero. (1, Jesus. 2, Ravi Zacharias. 3, Marsha)
Let me tell you about Marsha. Everyone talked about her, how crazy (in a good way) she is, always decorating and doing things, up at 2 am doing dishes or cooking for people. Oh yeah, she's 65 years old. Age has nothing on this woman, she is more energetic than people my age! I walked into the room and she's hanging this giant mirror on the wall and I asked, "Why isn't someone helping her with that?!" They, of course, are used to the way she is and that's what they said,..."That's just the way she is." We were constantly asking if she needed help with anything but she never did, she just did everything. She was always up later at night and earlier in the morning. Riana (her daughter) told us that she walked in one day and she was painting the vaulted ceiling by putting a ladder on the bed. Crazy right. BUT AWESOME!
Ok, I tried to be brief but it's not working. Moving on, Sunday morning! We got up, went to church and then after went to Subway with Riana, Roman, Ryan, Kaitlin, Kaylee (positive I spelled that wrong), Marsha, and Pastor Ron. From there we headed out. Not to steal their crowns or anything, but we were blessed by a lot of people there. Their love and support meant more than I think they know.
From Flagstaff it was a LOOONG drive to the Grand Canyon, or, as Roman put it, a huge hole in the ground.
After oogling the grand view (pun intended), we rode the shuttle and figured out that that was a good way to talk to people who weren't too busy oogling themselves. We talked to this couple from Chicago who told us of their grand adventures but got off the bus before we could really tell them anything of substance. Next we struck up a convo with these 3 guys from Alaska who were on a 5 week trip going hiking and rafting and what not. SICK! The guy in front of us who we were mainly talking with seemed slightly uncomfortable with Marc but he still talked to him for a bit about his travels. We told him what we were doing and he seemed to turn around a little bit then soon after got off of the bus. So it goes.
From there we drive for almost 3 hours to a small town kind of east of Page, AZ. When I say small, I mean that we at first drove through it in about 15 seconds. Literally.
Which, essentially, brings us to the present...Salt Lake City! We stopped off at CC Salt Lake City and talked to the manager of the bookstore and the assistant pastor, Pastor John (not Milhouse) lol. They filled us in on a lot of things about the city and the culture. From there we went to Marc's mom's old family friend's house where we had dinner and are staying the night. Thankfully because it's snowing!
But that is the update...I have a little bit more to say but it's definitely time to get off of the computer!
Stay tuned, as always. :) We're going out into the city tomorrow so I'm sure there will be lots to talk about.
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