So last you heard we were in Minnesota! So Tuesday morning we went and got our oil changed (boring, I know) and then back to the Loewen's. They were going to Como Park to look at plants but conveniently (and awesomely) there was a free zoo there! Tiiiiight!
Marc in the rainforest :)
I don't know how she stands like that all day, I was falling over!
pretty flowers :)
dude. a huge stingray trying to suck his way through the glass! lol
Flamingo Marc!
bison!
there was no snow for the polar bear :(
how awesome! The lion was sleeping in the kiddie pool
the tiger, always my favorite
we like to pretend we are tall :)
Madagascar!
by far the coolest part of the day. The silverback gorilla came and sat up against the glass, which was the only thing separating us. Holy moly, not gonna lie, I was afraid! But wouldn't you be if you were two inches away from a gorilla?!
Marc's great great great grandpa. Psh, I know, it sounds dumb right?
I don't know why people believe that stuff.
And that was about it for Minnesota!
Wednesday morning we headed out to Wisc-ann-sin! We didn't have a whole lot of time before church so we just got some Pizza Hut (the gift that keeps on giving!) and then it was about time so we headed off to Calvary Chapel Madison. Service was pretty good. When we walked in we were immediately greeted by an elder in the church (Brian I believe), so that was nice! When service first started, there was about 10 people in the audience, and TWELVE people on the worship team! So many people! But people eventually came, late as usual lol. We met a really nice woman named Kathleen. She was so nice & welcoming. She made sure to tell us all about the church and upcoming events. She really was so nice. I know I always write about people all the time being welcoming, but I think it's because I've realized how important it is. Its something that people at church always talk about, greeting your neighbor and such, but I never really realized how truly important it is to someone who is new. My whole perspective has changed. I always disliked the "turn and greet your neighbor" part of church, but now I've really discovered the beauty of it.
Anyways, after study Kathleen was talking to us some more so we told her about our trip so she took us up to the pastor (Jeff) to get prayer. So we talked to him a bit about the trip and he invited us to park our van in front of his house. A very nice offer except he lived 45 minutes away in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure to Wisc-ann-sin natives, that's no big deal but to a couple of California kids who have seen too many scary movies, that sounds terrifying! Plus the drive was just a bit too much so we thankfully declined.
at the border
some pretty scenery shots we took while driving:
hahaha...what's shakin. how funny
Thursday morning we started our day at Starbucks, reading & the like. We got to talk to the 2 guys sitting next to us for a quick second. They were really curious about the trip but then had to get back to work. So it goes. About 20 minutes later the lady who was sitting next to us on the other side the whole time asked us, out of the blue, about our trip & what we were doing. She asked us about our religion & what we think heaven is like and just a bunch of questions. She has a background in Catholicism but isn't currently associated with any specific religion. She does identify more with a lot of aspects of Eastern religion and transcendentalism, living on a "higher plane" and all of that kind of new agey stuff. It was really cool to be able to just share the gospel with her and how to get to heaven. Everytime she said she had to get back to work, she would ask us another question. It was cool to see her so interested.
Sometimes its so weird the way that people think-we really have heard so many different bizarre arguments. She was talking about how there is not one ultimate truth, which, of course, I disagreed with. I used the table in front of her as an example, saying that my truth says that there is no table here. Well, that doesn't change the fact that there is a table there, it's just my perception that is changing, to which she replied, "But on a molecular level that table isn't there. It's just a bunch of particles floating around that aren't even really touching." True. This is true, but unfortunately for her, we don't live on a molecular level. This is an example of things that we come into contact with-people want to believe anything and everything that won't require them to be accountable. So it goes. All we can do is tell them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit has to do the rest.
After leaving the bux, we walked around downtown for a little while. This is the first city that we've been to where the capitol building was so close to anything else. It was literally in the middle of downtown, no lawn or anything. So we went to the capitol building and when we walked in, people were standing in the center underneath the dome singing! Just a big circle of people. We later found out that they were protesting the governor, Scott Walker. Everywhere we looked they had stickers of "Recall Walker". They even held their governor recall election while we were here! But I'm getting off track-these people had been there in the capitol building everyday protesting the governor by singing. Cool?
at night (as if that needed explaining)
an exact replica of the Liberty Bell, minus the crack, which Marc will take care of.
Interesting fact: apparently, France gave each state the same exact bell
to help raise funds (or something like that).
to help raise funds (or something like that).
So every state has a "Liberty Bell".
some of the beautiful interior
the governor's meeting room
the view from the top
When we were done there we walked around downtown and Marc started talking to this guy sitting on a bench. He was from the South but had been up here for work for a couple years. He said he goes to church occasionally and after a few minutes said he wanted to come to church with us on Sunday, but needed a ride so we gave him our card and said we'd pick him up, just to call us. So we were now committed to being there until Sunday, which wasn't the plan, but so it goes in our lives.
Moving on, a homeless guy asked us for money. Silver & gold have we none ;) so Marc shared the Lord with him. He said he was a believer, as do almost all homeless people. He was having some health issues & Marc prayed for healing for him, which was pretty sweet because a little while later when we passed him again, he said it was working! Tiiiight.
Time went by & I got tired of walking (because we walk really far all the time so we don't have to pay for parking) so we started heading back to the car when Marc saw this guy sitting at the bus stop. He was so soft spoken I could not hear a word that he said the entire time, but Marc summarized their conversation to me. His name was Hikan (and I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and he was of Turkish descent. Sweeeeet. He was raised as an orthodox something version of Catholicism but didn't know how to get to heaven. So Marc told him the gospel and invited him to church & he said he might come. Very cool. And that was about it for Thursday!
Friday morning we again started off at Starbucks where, this time, we talked to a guy who was an atheist science teacher (shocker) but he seemed to have different reasons than usual as to why he was an atheist. He had done a lot of research and looking around at other religions and philosophy, which is what led him to the belief that there is no God. He was a really super nice guy, though. Very civil and calm headed to talk to, which is always a nice change of pace. So many times when you present an opposing idea to someone they automatically get offended, but he was very willing to talk.
After our studies, we headed back to the capitol area. When we got there, we had to indulge in some genuine Wisc-ann-sin and have some cheese. :) Everybody rants about cheese curds, which I had never had nor heard of, so we had to get some! We asked around and apparently the best cheese place in Madison is a place right next to the capitol called "Fromagination", a very funny play on words. (In French, cheese is "fromage"-pronounced like omage, but with a fr- on the beginning). Happily for us, they had cheese samples ALL OVER the place! It was so yummy!!! So we had cheese curds which were....interesting. As you bite them, they squeak against your teeth pretty much up until the time you swallow them. You know when you brush your teeth and you can rub your finger on them really fast to make them squeak? It was just like that. Super weird, I know. We met one of the ladies who works there & she was super awesome and helpful in explaining a bunch of different stuff about cheese. So we ended up getting 4 different kinds of cheeses, just little tiny slivers. Mmmmmmmm chhheeeeeese :)
starting with the chuck with stuff in it is Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar (gross)
top was some weird award winning cheese that I also didn't like
on the right had side was the 3 year old parmesan. Decadent.
and on the bottom was my 8 year old cheddar. oh so fabulous.
Then it was back to the capitol, this time to take the tour. I'm glad we did because we got to go into rooms that we previously hadn't, so that was nice. The building is pretty legit, probably as nice, if not nicer than Iowa's capitol building, which I never thought I would say! But it was super pretty.
When the tour was over, we ventured down to the local lakeside to eat our cheese & find people to talk to. We walked for day but there was nobody there! It was weird. I mean, I know it's summer break, but to have nobody chilling there at all except runners was weeeeird. In all fairness, we couldn't really find any "kick it spots", so maybe that's why. So we went back to the car and went back downtown. Now that it was after 6:00 we could park at the meters without having to pay. Oh happy day! No mile long walk for me!
As we walked, we stopped to talk to this lady who we gave a tract to but she didn't speak English. :( Or at least she pretended not to! Haha. So as we walked around, these guys handed us a flyer for a free show that night. Um yes please! We had about an hour to kill before it started so we used our gift card & shared a Subway sandwich. That night we were stopped by 2 different homeless people, one asking for money, the other trying to sell newspapers to support himself & his son. Most times once you tell them you don't have any money to give them & that you live in a van, they have zero interest in trying to talk to you anymore, but Marc's philosophy is that if anybody stops him to talk about anything, they're getting the gospel. A good philosophy to have. :)
So we get to the show 10 minutes after it was supposed to start and they were not even done setting up & there was nobody there. Another artist was going to go up first, but he was downstairs schmoozing. Disappointment. They are so not even close to famous enough to show up late to their own show. Oober lame, so to the van it was!
And this brings us to Saturday. The lady at the cheese store had told us about a huge Farmer's Market that the city has every Saturday. Supposedly it's the biggest in the country (it didn't seem like it), so we went. There were more protesters against the governor. This time it was a skit.
As we walked around and scoped out fantastic cheese, we came upon a few guys who had a little booth about "Top 15 reasons to question evolution" so we stopped & talked to them for a little while. They gave us a bunch of literature & a book called "The Evolution Handbook" which apparently refutes many of the arguments made by evolutionists. I have yet to read it, but Marc has started it and says it is written with a tone, but is good.
From there we walked around more & Marc spotted a guy sitting alone (his favorite) on a bench so we talked to him. He was from Atlanta but was up here visiting family. He goes to church & believes in God & had all of the right answers, so there was not a whole lot else we could say. So we moved on! As we were standing in line to get some free samples of fried cheese (mmmmm), this lady next to us asked if we were going to vote. We explained to her that we were from California, but then asked her about Jesus. Turns out she was Jewish but then said she was appealing to "the gods" for help for their state. Uuuuummmm, I'm sure that that isn't how it works lady.
The next conversation was an...interesting one. Three college aged guys who looked like frat boys were sitting on the stairs of the capitol & they were Marc's next lucky victims. One was Jewish (not really practicing), one was agnostic, and the other could not care less. None of them cared, but there was a particular stench of "I don't care" about the third one. It is totally mind blowing to me when people say that they don't care to think about where they will spend eternity. I mean, it is one thing to not believe in heaven/hell, but to not even take the time to form an opinion on it is just foolish. You have a job, you plan your future, you at least take care of yourself in the here and now, why wouldn't you at least want to think about eternity? If it's real, you're screwed. So many people have said to us, "well I guess I'll find out when I get there," not realizing that that is not how it works. I just wish we could make people see. Sigh.
And that was about it for the farmer's market so we headed over to the University of Wisconsin, Madison for the free jazz festival they were having on the terrace. Uh-stinkin-mazing. The view here was beyond superb.
the view from where we sat
apparently the school dairy store has the best ice cream around so Marc treated me to some
:) oh happy day!
the water behind us
At the festival we talked to this guy named Greg from Boston. He was another one of those "I don't care about what happens after you die and I don't care to think about it now" kind of people. :( We talked to him for a couple of minutes and he said that in Boston you have to know your sports if you want the time of day from anyone. Good for me, bad for Marc lol. I do wish that I had a Raider's jersey or shirt to wear since we'll be in Patriot's town (EW).
From there Marc talked to these two guys:
Throughout the day there were a few other scattered conversations here & there, none of them of too much note until our last conversation with a girl named Jane. She was sitting there reading so we went up & began a conversation with her that lasted for at least 30 minutes. She just graduated with a degree in bio. Sadly, she said that she wants to believe in something, but with everything she learned she just doesn't see how it is possible. We shared as much as we could with her but she just had so many doubts. She didn't believe in the validity or authenticity of the Bible because of the dark ages and various other reasons. Something she said that saddened my heart was, "We all evolved from apes, I mean, that's just a fact." People pay so much money to believe anything that people tell them. Even in the scientific community that's not fact-it's the leading theory, which means nothing with no evidence.
So the next day (Sunday) we went to church without any of the guys we invited. It was a super good message on the faith of the centurion from an aspect that I had never heard taught before. Afterwards they serve a free potluck lunch so we stayed for that and met a few good people. The lady who sat right across from us was even from Moreno Valley!!! Small world, as always! The guy next to us was really interested in our trip and even helped us out some, so that was nice, and then it was off to Milwaukee!!
I absolutely love the look of Milwaukee. It's old, but not falling apart-just the right amount of vintage & culture. It really is a beautiful city. When we got into town, we were tired from the past few days so we took the day off and went to the beach (aka Lake Michigan!) where we just read and relaxed for the rest of the day!
the bridge we're on is one of the ones that goes up so ferrys can cross. sweet.
the beach at Lake Michigan!
excuse the frizzy hairs :)
Alright, that's it for now. Milwaukee update to come when I have more time.
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