Something we learned while we were there was that most of the pieces of these scrolls were in little tiny pieces. They likened it to getting three different, large bags of potato chips from the grocery store, crunching them all up, mixing them together, then trying to put them all back together. There was something like 19,000 fragments. Holy Moly!!!!
So from there we took the 25 south to pretty much the bottom of the state then headed West on the 160. After about 9 hours of driving we stopped in Durango and slept in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Dude. Too much driving for one day! (Look it up on the map...so dumb). Also! Side note! We went around a curve and almost hit these pretty big rocks that had fallen in the road. Praise God He steered us right between them but we went back to move them and one of them was so large that together we still couldn't move it! Needless to say, my heart was PUMPING!
In the morning we got up and washed the van and finished our trek to Four Corners, which took another 2 hours but was super cool. Marc made a really good point about people that were just kinda sitting there, doing nothing-people feel obligated to stay for a while because you drive so far to get there then you pay (only $3) to get in, but really, you can do everything there is to do in about one minute. You can go from New Mexico, to Colorado, to Utah, to Arizona and back to New Mexico in the time it takes you to take 5 steps. If you go "the long way" around the outside of the circle, it will take you about 30 seconds, but it was really cool.
From there we headed Southeast through this little town called Farmington where we were supposed to meet up with a friend but it just didn't work out so we drove on...and on and on! Another five hours to get to Albuquerque. Our routine when we get into a new town is to first go to the church where we plan on sending the people we talk to and getting business cards or invitations or brochures, just basically whatever we can use to give to people to send them to church. By the time we got into Albuquerque, the church was closed until their service that night so we went to their bookstore/coffee shop which was HUGE!!! Holy cheesoly it was gigantic! But super cool. I'll put up pictures if I ever remember to take them. So eventually the cafe was closing and we had nowhere to go so we decided to go use a gift card that we were blessed with and chill at Starbucks to finish up our business. We were there for like two and a half hours and then they closed so we just sat in the van while Marc put the finishing touches on the video.
As the workers finished up and came out, one of them gave us a thumbs up for the huge "Jesus Saves" sign we have in our window so we got to tell him what we were doing. That was pretty cool. Five minutes later he scared the daylights out of us by knocking on the window when neither of us were paying attention, but he invited us to go with him, his wife, and some friends to Buffalo Wild Wings just to hang out, so off we went!
We had just eaten so we just hung out but we got to tell the group about what we were doing (they were all believers too). Then when we were just about done, Jesse (Starbucks worker) and his wife (Lindsey) invited us to stay in their spare bedroom. I swear I've had more sleepovers in the past 7 weeks then most girls do in their life! Haha but that concludes Saturday.
Sunday we got up and went to church at Calvary of Albuquerque where Skip Heitzig pastors. (Side note, on Easter-this Sunday-Phil Wickham is doing worship for their sunrise service! Tiiiight!) That church is ginormous but really pretty. The message was about evangelism and why we aren't doing it and how to do it successfully. He gave it in four steps, modeled after Jesus:
1-take the initiative. Jesus came down from Heaven, He didn't wait till we asked Him to. Don't wait for people to come up to you and ask you for the gospel. Find a way, an open door to talk to them.
2-open your mouth! use words! P. Skip spoke of the old quote that many of us have heard, "Always preach the gospel and when necessary, use words." "What a dumb quote," he said. If people see you living a good life but don't know why then it doesn't matter. Not to demean the importance of living a glorifying life, but we are to open our mouths and speak of God, just as Jesus did.
3-What you proclaim with your lips, practice with your life. Jesus' message was radical because His life was radical. If He didn't live as He did, His message would have been to no effect.
4-Brace yourself for opposition. They killed Jesus, do you think they'll just accept what you have to say because you believe it? We will be laughed at, we will be ridiculed and looked down upon for our beliefs, but remember that they are not rejecting us, but God.
People choose to suffer for many reasons, why not truth?
After church we went out into the city, first to a small park we found. There weren't that many people there but as I was getting something ready in the van, Marc struck up a conversation with a man nearby who happened to be traveling and an atheist. I hurried what I was doing and made my way over. He was talking about the world and that it has always existed and will always exist. Sweet, I thought, I know this answer! haha. I told him that according to Einstein's theory of relativity, the world is coming to an end, to which he replied, "Well, that's just his general theory of relativity." This is when Marc chimed in with a fact that I had missed : "He's a physicist." Gulp! That's pretty much all I know about Einstein but this man was schooled! There went that route. We talked for a while longer and then we all went on our separate ways. He was really super nice though and very willing to talk, which was awesome. He wasn't condescending or anything, which can happen a lot with educated people such as him.
Next we went to the university. Marc struck up a conversation with this guy who was tagging up the ground with chalk to promote his show, Poets vs. Emcees (which sounds awesome). He grew up Jehovah's Witness and his gf is Christian so he goes to both churches sometimes but isn't really sure what he believes. We got to share the truth of Jesus with him and leave a tract and a "How Can I Become A Christian/How Can I Grow In My Christian Faith?" flyer. Pray that he would see the Lord for who he is. Something that he told us, which is more honesty than most people will admit to, is that he doesn't really want to be "religious" right now, but when he gets older and more mature he will go to church. This is such a huge tool of Satan! Tomorrow is not promised! How many people do you know who knew the day they were going to die? Almost nobody! The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow may never come for you and then it will be too late.
Moving on, we walked the university area for a little while but because it was Sunday there weren't too many people. After some grocery shopping, we headed back to Jesse & Lindsey's house. On Monday we did laundry (yeah!) and went back to the university. We handed out a good number of Easter service invitations and got to talk to a lot of people but it started raining so we bounced.
That night Jesse & Lindsey had friends over (Megan & Jared who we met at Buffalo Wild Wings also) and Lindsey made us New Mexican food! I never knew there was such a thing! I'm sure I'm going to spell this wrong, but she made us sopapillas which are kinda like sopitas, but a little bit different. Either way, they were super yummy!
We're not sure how much longer we will be here in Albuquerque. It started snowing this morning and we want to go out but we feel like nobody will be out so we're unsure of what to do. I feel as though it is a wasted day, like we should be out talking to people, but we're not! Although I REALLY do not like it here in New Mexico, I want to be here for sunrise service, but first and foremost to be in the Lord's will and to know where He wants us to go/when. Pray for direction for us, and that we would be led by His spirit.
Until next time :)
p.s. total side note-this picture is HILARIOUS! I didn't want to put it on Facebook cause I have young people on my friend's list but since this is a little more private, I thought I would put it up here.
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