Ok, so today is Friday, Good Friday to be exact. Over this past week we have pretty much done the same thing nearly every day, which is to go down to the university and walk around talking to people. Most of the time the people are pretty open to having a conversation with, of course, a couple of exceptions. We met this Muslim woman who said she didn't want to discuss beliefs because everyone can have their own beliefs and even though she thinks hers is the right one, she doesn't feel obligated to tell anyone because she doesn't care if they go to heaven or not. That was a big pill to swallow. Selfish much? That was the most notable negative conversation that we had. On a (kinda) positive note, we talked to this guy, Norm, for about an hour. He believes in God and reads the scriptures (more on that later) but hates organized religion. First let me brag about this man-he was probably the most interesting man I've ever met.
He was in the Marines for 8 years, a SEAL, retired from working for the gov. for 25 years (at the end he was making 70k a year), lived in the Middle East/India for 7 years, studied Hinduism in Tibet for a year and a half, has owned 4 businesses (one being a record shop for 17 years), has flipped 14 houses & had 200 employees currently owns 20,000 vinyls. He has mutliple degrees & is currently going back to school to learn how to do cancer/alzheimers research. He & 10 of his closest friends backpacked Europe for 7 months.
When he was in India for those 7 years, he & his wife were doing humanitarian aid. One day, he saw a man beating his wife in the streets so he grabbed the whip and hit the man! Immediately, he was arrested for not only breaking the law by stopping this man from beating his wife, but also because he hit him for it. It cost him about $20,000 to get out of prison! Years later, when his wife died, she wanted her ashes spread in one of India's river so he had to pay another $25,000 to be let back into the country!
Another story from India-while they were there, they stopped by Mother Teresa's orphanage and helped out. While there, they met a man from the Vatican who gave them his business card and told them to call if they were in the area. Years later they did and they were given a tour of areas of the Vatican that are closed to the public and given a special seat behind the bishops at a mass performed by the pope. Crazy!
But anyways, I fear that he has a bit of an inadequate or incorrect grasp on who God is. He sounds so much like a Christian, but is skewed. He disagrees on two issues that are pretty divisive already, but definitely has a non-Biblical perspective. He understands that it all comes down to your relationship with God and even encouraged us to be strengthened in our faith and keep seeking God, but he talked a lot about a higher level of enlightenment than what most people will ever experience and how, when he was young, he did drugs to try to attain it. A true hippy. He even sought advice from a Native American medicine man. Trippy. Oddly enough, his mother is a minister, but she is one of the ones who gave him a bad taste for religion in the first place. (Which I could see making sense.) Unlike most people, he didn't take another Christian's hypocrisy to mean that there is no God, just that she wasn't acting as He intended. So as to the state of his walk, who knows. We can only know what we see/hear, as many times people aren't completely honest, but it is not my job to judge it.
Another fantastic convo that we had was at Jack-in-the-Box. We went to use our gift card (thank you Alicia) and I felt before we got there that there was going to be someone we were supposed to talk to, but while we were there, nobody hung around, it was just the 2 of us. Towards the end these two guys sat down who were probably late 20's, maybe early 30's. They were cussing up a storm and talking about smoking and all this junk. Which definitely isn't to say that we shouldn't talk to them, but we've had bad run ins with this "type" before. Usually they want nothing to do with us, but nevertheless, my brave husband walks up and starts talking to them. One of them worked there so he got up pretty quickly and found other things to be doing, but the other guy (the really profane one) was really invested in the conversation. He grew up Catholic but knew that that wasn't the right way. He knew there was a God, he just didn't know what or who He is, basically an agnostic. He & Marc got to talk for about 15-20 minutes and the guy said a few times "that's a good point." Marc brought up a lot of things that really made him re-think his stance on a few things. I told Marc afterwards that it was the best conversation that I've ever heard him have with anyone. Praise the Lord! I love knowing that seeds were planted! Pray that the seeds would fall on fertile soil.
Last night we went to Calvary of Albuquerque's young adult service. It was in an old, small theater that is on the college strip. Super awesome. The people there were all really nice but we just haven't made as many friends here as we usually do. The people we are staying with are definitely awesome. They go to a church a little ways away so we don't see them at church and their schedules are usually opposite ours so we don't really see them much either.
Pray for me because I don't really like it in New Mexico but I'm praying that that wouldn't hinder our work here or make me want to rush out of the state (which I really want to lol). If Easter wasn't coming up this week, I think we probably would have left on like Wednesday.
Sigh. Ok, I'm done complaining :) The Lord is good and He provides as always.
Oh! We are going to be in Texas very soon at a friend's house, so if you are interested in sending us a letter telling us how much you love us or a winning lotto ticket or a million dollar Starbucks gift card, text me and I'll send you the address of where you can send us mail :)
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