For those of you who are recently joining, here is what my blog is: a chronicle of our (me & Marc, my husband) awesome road trip. We are going from state to state telling people about Jesus. We started in Southern California (specifically Moreno Valley) and have been to Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and (currently) Oklahoma, respectively. No we're not rich, but we penny pinch & the Lord provides. We stay in our van, shower at people's houses by the grace of God, and talk to whoever we can. It's not the easiest life but it's where we are with Jesus right now & we love it. Also, a quick side note: there are many people who have donated to us financially & for that we are sincerely grateful. Thank you for your support & letting God use you to minister to our needs. Please don't feel as though we aren't appreciative because we don't put your name up in the videos or blogs, we believe that your reward in heaven will be much greater than recognition from man. Enjoy the fruit to your account :)
Ok, shortest synopsis ever haha. So we left McKinney (Dallas) on Friday afternoon. We kissed our vacation goodbye & packed up the giant mess of stuff we had back into the van, returned Sabrina's apt key to her, and headed out! The drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a really pretty rest stop with super nice bathrooms but that was really it. Its weird because the more "inland" we get, the less graffiti we see, which is cool, just so different from what we're used to. A pretty spot that isn't tagged up-strange.
So we made our way up to Oklahoma City. It was after 5 so we figured the church would be closed so we headed to the capitol building to be tourists.
(I don't really know the point in putting these up-they pretty much all look the same-dome top, tall pillars.)
Of course it was closed too but we snapped our pictures & walked around for a bit then realized we were really close to the Oklahoma City bombing memorial so we headed over there. It was, as memorials always are, very somber. The first thing you see to the left of the entry way is part of the wall that was still standing, jagged and torn up. The first gate was marked "9:01", the time right before the bombing when the federal building still stood. There was a big reflecting pool, which was really beautiful. On the left of the pool where the building once stood was a field of chairs. One hundred and forty-nine tall chairs and 19 small chairs, each symbolizing one of the 168 people who died in the blast. The back gate read "9:03", the minute after the bomb in which the city was forever changed. Outside of the gate was a chain link fence that was filled with bracelets, pictures, flowers, keychains, notes, shirts, anything & everything to commemorate those who died. On one laminated picture was two yong boys, Chase and Colton. After I saw this, I had to walk away. It was too much. These poor boys were probably only 1 & 3 years old and were now remembered by two small chairs in a field of 168. So sad.
9:01-the minute before it happened
the inscription before you enter the memorial
the reflecting pool that used to be 5th st.
this was spray painted on the building that faced the explosion
this area was dedicated to the first responders
a bit of the remaining wall
the field of chairs commemorating the victims. each one has a name written on it.
a view from the opposite side. here you can see the shorter chairs, for the children who died
a view in the reflecting pool of a building that sustained a lot of damage
the back gate, the minute after it happened
just a portion of the chain link fence outside of the memorial.
Chase & Colton are two little boys who died in the blast.
After visiting the memorial, we headed downtown a little bit. Apparently we came to OKC at just the right time! It's funny because everyone seems to tell us that in every city we go to. Thank you Jesus for guidance. :) The city puts on an art festival once a week every year for the past 30 years & it draws over a million people (word on the street). We totally stumbled upon it, too. So we parked & headed in. By this time it was probably around 7:45ish but we walked around & explored the beautiful surroundings. We passed a man sitting on a bench (Frank) and Marc just said hi & they started talking. It was a nice little conversation that only lasted a couple minutes. As we walked away I asked Marc why he didn't tell Frank about Jesus & he said he wasn't sure, but that he didn't really have the words or the leading. So we kept walking.
They had a couple different stages where people were playing and we happened upon had a guy playing who was kinda folky-rocky, either way interesting, so we sat. He played a few songs & had a few Christian-esque lyrics mixed in.
We talked to him afterwards. Turns out he is a Christian. His dad is actually a pastor! His name is Justin Joslin if you wanna check out his music. Marc says he's kinda country but I say he's folk because I don't like country, so he can't be. From there, the festival ended for the day so we headed home, aka to the Wal-Mart parking lot!
Saturday morning Marc went to a men's prayer breakfast at Calvary Chapel Oklahoma City. He met a few guys there, one of whom gave us directions about where to park for the art festival. Today would be even crazier because not only was the art festival was on its last day, but literally right next door the Oklahoma City Thunder was playing the Dallas Mavericks in game 1 of the playoffs AND there was a marathon so a ton of the streets were going to be roped off. However, before we left, Marc took a nap. Poor guy was tired. as he rested I read about Ted Kaczynski who, for some reason, was fascinating me. After he woke up we were having our study before heading out and all of a sudden a siren starts going off. This wasn't like a police siren, this was like a "Toto, get in the basement" kind of siren. That's right, a tornado siren. For real. Marc was like, "What is that?! That's a tornado siren!" And it was but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't really too worried about it, which is probably pretty dumb. I mean, they have those for a reason right?! Marc got out to see if he could see anything (and to record) and as he did, a car drove by pretty nonchalantly so I really, really wasn't worried anymore. A minute or so later it stopped so we were like, "eh, whatever."
And we were off to the art show! So we parked far away (because we almost never pay for parking) and walked back to the fest. This was our first real day back out since our "time off" and it was kinda hard to get back in the swing of things. People were doing things & with people so it wasn't as easy to spot people to talk to. Marc did strike up a few conversations but only one of them was really good. He helped this guy to understand a verse he was totally misunderstanding & getting tripped up on. Another couple we talked to explained that they test the sirens every Saturday at noon, which was what we heard. Aaahhh, a false alarm :) and a totally funny story. All together we were at the festival for 5, maybe 6 hours. We ran into Frank again & got to sit with him for a bit. Turns out he is a believer too and like half of his family is a deacon or minister or something! We left not too long after that and went and killed about 3 1/2 hours at Starbucks reading & doing research.
As they always do, they closed & we had to leave :( lol so we went to Walmart. We always park kinda far from the door, towards the back where the other RV's, vans, & big rigs park. We went in to use the restroom and by the time we came out it was pouring! There was thunder & lightening everywhere! It was AWESOME! I have always loved watching lightening. Marc was a little worried about getting hit but we were good...until we got a text from Jeppa, a guy Marc had met that morning. Long story short, there was a chance of huge hail, which, in these parts, is known to reach the size of grapefruits!!! And 60 mph winds. And they were on tornado watch. Wow. Thanks for that. So we left Walmart & went over to the church because they had an awning we could park under so at least if there was murderous hail it wouldn't break our windows.
Well if there was a tornado or giant hail we never knew about it! God kept us safe & tucked away. Sunday morning we went to church. Pastor Ken taught from Mark 7 about being legalistic. It was a very good study. Afterwards we headed to Qdoba with the young adult group. There's only 5-10 of them, but they are solid. They spent about a half an hour asking us questions and talking about the trip then we went over James 3. The format of the study was really laid back, a lot like our old Saturday studies for those of you who attended. Afterwards we headed over to my friend Karen's house. Karen used to live in Moreno Valley & attended the first church I went to in Mo Val, Discovery. She worked with a friend of mine in the mall so I always sat next to her on Sunday mornings. She moved out here to Oklahoma a couple of years ago so she had us over for dinner. It was SO bomb! Chicken risotto& a black bean/corn salad. Mmm mmm mmm. And cream puffs & strawberries for dinner! So yummy!
On Monday we worked on some catch up at Starbucks where we were once again blessed with food & good conversation :) Marc started talking to this girl who ended up being a lesbian who goes to an affirming church, which basically means they teach that homosexuality isn't a sin. (if you're reading this & I don't know you, don't get all crazy, it was a civil conversation about what the Bible teaches where nobody was offended & nobody pointed fingers.) It was interesting.
From there we headed to Penn Square Mall where Marc started talking to a guy at Zumiez named Blake. He was a pretty cool guy & wanted to hang out. Marc gave him our card but he never called. Oh well. On the way out there was these 2 brothers having car trouble so Marc started talking to them & was able to give them the gospel. The conversation went super well, one of the best so far. Next we headed to church so Marc could shower and then we stayed for their schol of ministry class. It lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. For the 1st half hour we covered some church history which, to me, was super interesting. Marc looked bored lol. For the rest of the time a man named Ray covered Romans ch. 3-6. Talk about jam packed!
As it always does, it stormed again that night. Major sized buckets of rain! Lightening so bright it hurt my eyes! Thunder that would make you pee your pants! Not that we did lol just sayin. We were running into Walmart to pee before we went to sleep & the thunder was so loud it made me scream like a little girl! As we settled in for the night we got a slightly disturbing text that read: "Tornados on the ground two hours south of the city. Keep the radio on if you can. After dark is the worst time cuz you can't see them to track them." Talk about terrifying man! Dang! Lol. I wasn't really worried about it...Marc says I was in denial but God kept us safe like I knew He would. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us that night :)
Tuesday we went to get our van window looked at because the motor was going out. As we were sitting there writing postcards, the guy next to us started talking to us! He was an older man and has been to all 50 states. We talked for quite some time. He gave us more info on tornados and at one point asked if we had enough to cover the cost of the window. What a sweet man! It was funny when we were leaving we asked his name and he says, "Fred Shows. That's S-h-o-w-s." It seemed like a very southern way to introduce himself.
Remember Ray? The guy that taught those 4 chapters of Romans? He invited us over for dinner & to stay the night. He & his wife Kathy were super nice!
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Marc & their 22 yr old son Zachary played a couple games of chess & Go. Marc was excited to have someone to play with cause I won't play with him but Zach plays competitively and has studied under a master. Cuh-razey! This morning (Wednesday) they took us to breakfast at a place called Jimmy's Egg.
It was fantastic! Even though we left at 7 am! Needless to say, after breakfast was naptime :) then back to the glass place to get our window motor repaired where Marc talked to Marcus in the waiting room, who is also a believer. I swear everyone and their mom goes to church here! In just a little bit we'll be heading off to church. In the morning we plan on leaving for Kansas, Lord willing, as always.
Ministry in Oklahoma has been different. Usually we spend a good chunk of the day finding people to talk to but in Oklahoma we mostly talk to people that cross our path while we're going about our business. It's been an interesting change. It's difficult in a sense because we're in the Bible belt so everyone goes to church which makes me feel like we should move on because they've "got it covered" but at the same time, not everyone who goes to church is going to heaven so they need ministering to. Its a delicate balance.
Also, if you could be in prayer for my purpose on the trip. Marc is a great evangelist which leaves me to pray, but is that all I'm here for? Or is there more? I'm just kinda unsure of my "job" if you will. I have a passion for teaching but that doesn't fit in on this trip & I love apologetics but you can't argue someone into believing Jesus. Facts don't win people over, a softened heart and a realization of a need do.
Well that's the update. Thank you for your prayers & love. :)
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