I'm going to Wichita...dumb song -__-

Oh Oklahoma. What can I say about you? Goodbye! :) 

We left Oklahoma on Thursday, May 3rd after heading to the church & taking a shower. There were 3 guys there that had been keeping up with us, so as we were leaving, they prayed for us & gave us a case of waters, which was extra sweet because we had just run out! And we were off! After an uneventful drive, we made it to Wichita, Kansas, where I had "Seven Nation Army" stuck in my head all week. Literally every day. SO lame. The capital (where we usually like to go) of Kansas is Topeka but there was no Calvary there and Wichita is bigger, so we decided to go there instead, which is perfect because Topeka is super out of the way of our next destination. We got to Wichita somewhere between 1 & 3 pm and headed to the church. We pulled into a near empty parking lot & locked doors. After knocking for a second, we were turning to leave when someone finally answered the door. The pastor wasn't there but this guy (James) asked if we needed something so we told him about what we were doing & where we could go to find people. After talking to us for about 10 minutes, he offered to put us up in the youth room. SOOOOO sick! 

Calvary Chapel Wichita

(the building in the front is the youth room-the back one is the church)

The SWEET youth room we got to stay in.

The other side of the room, including the bean bags we slept on for the week.

Not only did James let us stay in the youth room (that had a shower!), but he piled us in his car & took us around town showing us the spots where people hang out! What a nice guy! The rest of Thursday we didn't do a whole lot, just chilled out. Friday morning we got up & went downtown. We went out too early though, and there was nobody out so we wandered down the streets and came across a park type area that had a Veterans Memorial.

A list of MIA, KIA, and WIA for all of the countries involved in the Korean War. A very staggering number.

a giant torpedo that was just laying around

After walking a little farther down, we discovered a river! Well, I'm sure other people have discovered it before, but we happened upon it. :) It was a cute little area, but a little bit surreal & totally opposite of Salt Lake City! There were so many tracts! They were on the steps, the ground, & the light pole. It wasn't anything like you'd see at a concert, but at home the only tracts you ever run across are the Watchtower's. Here, there were probably like 10 of them in a 50 foot stretch of sidewalk! Just across the river was this place called "Exploration Center" so we crossed the bridge & went in. I think it was just a fun little kids place but we had fun doing their brain teasers anyways. The security guard (who was at least 65), came over and helped me with probably 5 out of 12 of them....at least lol. We got to share a little bit with him. He is an Episcopalian, which we should have expected because everyone and their mother here goes to church. He was a super nice guy though. :)

Exploration Place

the first brain teaser...build a cube out of funny shaped blocks

after going head to head, Marc prevailed.

And then the most awesome thing in the world happened. I was so happy! We saw these guys: 

his voice even sounded all "Storm Trooper-y!" So sweet. In Kansas of all places!

After indulging our kid sides, we decided that we had been at the kids play area for too long & we might start to look creepy soon so we continued our journey through the park/river side, where we came to this guy:

the keeper of the plains!

a more panoramic style picture of the keeper

the very aesthetically pleasing bridge to go visit the keeper!

While we were visiting Mr. Keeper, there was a couple sitting there that was getting up & about to leave. As Marc has a habit if doing, he interrupted their time together and asked if they would like to be in his video. Because nearly everyone is self-absorbed and interested in self-promotion, they of course said yes! Neither of them were believers-they believed in something but they weren't really sure what exactly they subscribed to, it wasn't one solid idea, which is funny because so many people pick and choose from different religions and compose the different aspects that they like. If you think about it, that's pretty arrogant. It's almost as if they're saying, "The billions of people who believe & have ever believed in religions got it wrong. Here is the right idea, here is the truth of religion and what is right and I am the only one that has it right." Arrogant no? Anywho, if you watch Marc's video when he posts it, you'll see that he just talked for DAYS! Usually he asks a lot more questions but he said he just couldn't stop talking. Oh well, maybe they needed to hear it!

After the park we were starving! We had a little bit of lunch money left over so we headed to Pizza Hut because ever since San Antonio, we had been craving the $10 dinner box-pizza, breadsticks, and cinnamon sticks! After we ordered, we talked to the guy who worked there. He was pretty envious of our trip and pretty excited for us. After talking for a few minutes, he gave us his number and told us to call him when he was off later that night so he could meet up with us and give us food vouchers! And he did! We met up with him at 8ish in the downtown area and he gave us SO many vouchers! Some for personal pizzas, some for wings, breadsticks, and cinnamon sticks. Thank you Jesus! Two times during the week we went in to redeem the vouchers and he told us to get whatever we wanted & keep the vouchers for the trip. What a blessing! So we all walked around for a little bit and shared the gospel with him & invited him to church. Soon we went our separate ways. We went into this store for local artists to sell their crafts & art pieces. Marc was talking to the cashier & this other lady kind of butted into our conversation and so she & I started talking about the trip but as soon as I said "to spread the gospel", it was like she couldn't get away from me fast enough! It was a sad realization. People here are so "over-churched" and under-loved, that most fall into 1 of 2 categories: church goer or church hater. 

Afterwards, Marc talked to a guy named Sky who had a pretty interesting story. It was his birthday & he was just hanging out there by himself. He was telling Marc that he didn't really hang out with his old friends cause they all got into gangs and him & his mom don't get along & he works 3 jobs. Just a whole bunch of drama. We talked about the Bible & I tried to explain to him how we know there is a God & a heaven/hell, but I don't know that it was sufficient for him. After about 45 minutes, we went our separate ways. 

As we walked away, there was a man sitting alone on a bench-Marc's favorite, the poor guy lol. So we sat across from him and as we talked we found out that he was from New York and he was Jewish! I've never talked to a Jew before! Obviously, he didn't believe in Jesus but the only reason he could give as to why not was "Because I'm Jewish". After chatting a little longer, Marc said bye, right when I was going to ask him a question, but it's ok. By this time it was probably close to 11:00 so "home" we went.

Something kind of unnerving happened-the first night we were at the church, as we were going to sleep I swore I heard footsteps above us. (There is no upstairs). Every night we were there we just heard noises, which we attributed to "old building" noises, as the church was a schoolhouse built in the 1920's. (Creepy right?!) We'll come back to this later. 

Saturday we were supposed to go to a free show that we got invited to at the mall on Friday, but when we got there we discovered that you have to order something to be there so there went that idea. We were supposed to be meeting up with a couple of evangelists around 6 pm so we went back to the park that we were at & saw gobs of prom goers coming & going taking pictures with the keeper. Interesting. Around 6 we headed back downtown but then found out that they wouldn't be there until later, around 8. So we just hung out & talked to people. The first guy was from Iraq. Him & about 6 or 7 other guys where there taking a flight safety course. This brought up an interesting discussion between Marc & I based on the same (or similar) thing that you probably just thought-the 9/11 terrorists did the same thing. And how sad that we live in a world where our generation will always think that. With all of the memorials we've been to (various war memorials, Columbine, & Oklahoma City bombing) this trip has made me realize a lot about the state of humanity but also the wonderful severity of hope & how important it truly is in this world.

As we waited for the guys, Marc struck up a conversation with a really nice military guy but as soon as he brought up Jesus, he became coldly disinterested & borderline rude. So sad. After him there was another guy sitting on a bench. Marc talked to him for about an hour, then there was another guy who came up & started talking to both of them so Marc talked to him too! They both are fairly new believers but they got to talk & encourage each other for a good little while. Then we met up with Sheldon & I can't quite remember the other guy's name...I wanna say it's either Dean or Frank, but I'm leaning towards Dean. (Don't judge me, I meet tons of people.) They familiarized us with a little bit more of the area then showed us the restroom. After I came out of the bathroom, Marc was, of course, talking to someone who's name I never got. :( 

(Really quick side note, something that sounds totally obvious that God showed me was to be available. Duh right? But usually when Marc is talking to someone I'm kind of in the background praying. Well, hello, be available to jump in. So that's where I'm at now, which is perfectly awesome because.....)

He started talking about how big the moon was supposed to be & then how people have some crazy theories about where it came from (aka open door). We got to have a really great conversation that was kind of all over the place but it was a mixture of random conversation, the Bible, God, science, music...many things. We ended up talking for over an hour as we walked around then gave him a ride to his friend's house because he doesn't have a car. He got tired of paying for it, so he sold it & now he walks everywhere. He lives 12 miles away from where we ran into him. WOW.

Sunday morning we got up for church and this is where we come back to the schoolhouse being built in the '20's. As we're walking up to the church, James & Becky (his wife) say, "So have you guys been hearing any crazy noises in there?" which totally means that it wasn't our imagination! The night before Marc woke up in the middle of the night because he heard voices! TERRIFYING MUCH?! Yeah. The pastors have even gone in there and anointed the walls & prayed over the building before. Over the course of the next few days, even though we heard some super creepy stuff, it was cool because we had a peace that literally surpassed understanding. That stuff scares me so much that I can't even watch movies with ghosts or anything demonic in them, but being there wasn't the same. It was like I could hear the noises, but it almost felt as though there was a wall surrounding us. I remembered the verses in 2 Kings 6 where Elisha prays that his servant would see who was with them & suddenly his eyes were opened and he saw chariots of fire surrounding them. Thank you Jesus for the reminder! Greater is HE who is in us than he who is in the world! So we joked about the creepy haunted building for a little while & then headed inside.

Church was LEGIT! Pastor Patrick Farrel is the head pastor & his teachings are super amazing. He's insightful, he makes awesome connections, and brings everything back to Jesus. It was cool because the people there seemed really, authentically nice. Totally not used to that! lol. It was also kinda cool, before the study started, he told the congregation about us & made us raise our hands so a lot of people were talking to us when service was over. 

After church, Becky & James and their daughter Mary took us out to lunch. Yummy :) we heard some of their testimonies and just had some really good conversation. We got back, took a nap, then woke up for prayer & worship.Monday we got up early (9 am lol) to help around the church. Marc & James were running around chopping & organizing stuff & I spray painted some pictures & then headed to the youth room to finish painting the bathroom. Here is the before:

I painted for about 6 hours, then Marc made me stop & go to the ladies study which was totally funny because I, of course, did not want to go. (No offense to lovers of ladies' studies, it's just not my thing. I don't fit in, I don't feel like they're "my people", if you will.) But the whole afternoon Marc was telling me to ask Jesus if He wanted me to go. Then around 5 or 6 I get a text from Heidi that says something to the effect of "maybe I should start getting involved with women's ministries while on the road". Really Heidi? Unprovoked and everything. Thanks lol. After study it was games & then bedtime. 

Tuesday I literally painted all day (until 1:15 in the morning) except for about an hour when James & Becky took us to Wendy's for lunch and another half an hour when Becky took me to get ice cream (thank you Jesus & Becky!). Also, about half an hour while I made dinner & we ate. Other than that I painted & Marc helped James with other things around the church.

Dinner! For Marc: tuna sandwich, some green beans, pears, and a little bit of noodles.

For me, green beans & noodles!

sitting on top of the shower painting the walls. I was about 7 feet off the ground...and I'm afraid of heights!

the finished product!

On Wednesday, we did more work around the church. I touched up the bathroom & painted the ceiling and did Lord knows what else. By the time we were done, we got cleaned up & went to church! Three long, but rewarding days. Church, again, was so sweet. Pastor Patrick drew awesome parallels between 2 Samuel 10 & Jesus & the fall of man. Who'da thunk! :)

We left this afternoon after James & Becky took us out to lunch & here we are in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our time in Wichita was unexpectedly fantastic. The people at the church were just so nice & truly showed how the body of Christ can work together & come alongside each other. The ministry was sweet, between evangelism and working at the church. If there is something I say too much and not enough is that God is faithful! Our food bin was running empty & James and Becky filled us up with these:

(basically super legit cup of noodles and pho)  :)

Even just driving to Nebraska I realized how amazing it is that the van is even still running. God is good, faithful and just. What a mighty God we serve :) I just wish that we could get people to realize how good He is & how much He loves us. Ok, look for a Nebraska update in a few days. :)