the greatest of these is love: Buffalo!

So here's an awesome story and a lesson that I learned from it.
Last you heard from me, I was sitting at Starbucks writing my blog. Something that happened that I don't think I included was that, at one point, the store was full-there were no empty tables. Marc and I were sitting at a 4 person table so this older gentleman (not old, just older) and his stepdaughter joined us at our table. We talked to them for just a couple of minutes and got to share about our trip. He was a believer and they were taking care of business, so we didn't talk too much, just cordiality mostly. As soon as a table opened up, they moved, but about 10 minutes later, he came over to Marc and shook his hand but as he did, he slipped him some cash to help with the trip. Obviously not wanting to be rude, we didn't count it until later. When we finally did count it, the man had given us $200 in cash! Wow!!! I was so shocked and amazed at how God leads people to help us and this encounter that seemed so passive turned out to be great! It was just another reminder of how easy it is for God to bless us and how we should continually be putting our trust in Him. I was really excited about it! I even called my mom!
Not long after, I remembered something I had read on a friend's blog. They are raising money to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia and blogging the entire experience. As I skimmed one of their blogs, they were thanking people and one of the bullet points was:
"those who have blessed us with checks of no small significance"
Hhhhm. Of no small significance. And then I realized it-the widow's mite. Yes this man gave us a huge amount, but others have also given to us. Maybe it wasn't $200, but I know people have given to us out of their poverty as well and for the small gifts I should have been just as excited. Oops.
Alright, back to the blog! :)
Another cool thing that happened at Starbucks actually, we met this group of Christian people who are traveling around doing merch tables at concerts to promote pro-life. (They're called "Rock for Life"-check them out & buy some merch!) They were pretty awesome people! So we gave them some food and left to go back to the Roger's house. (Read the last blog-the Rogers are the awesome family that we stayed with in the Columbus, Ohio area.) It was crazy, as we were leaving, the sky was clear and beautiful but within about 10-15 minutes, there was crazy wind! The sky was dark and it was raining like MAD! The wind was pushing us all over the freeway as well as blowing leaves & debris everywhere. No lie, it was kinda scary. But we made it back just fine.
On Monday we had to get up oober early because we had an appointment to get the van looked at at 9 am. Ew. So we made it down there and it took about 30 minutes all together, if that. Jim (recommended by the Rogers) is the local church mechanic so he took a look at the van and put some transmission fluid in it and it hasn't acted up since! Yeah! God is good to us :) everytime I think something big is going to go wrong, He takes care of it. Sweeeet. So here we were, up early with no idea where to go. It was starting to get hot again so we drove around for a minute. I don't really remember much of what happened that day because I didn't write it down :( but we did end up back at the Roger's house that night for their Monday night Bible study, for which Marc was asked to play worship. :) I love watching him use his gifts to glorify God. Because of the storm, the power was out again! But we enjoyed each other's company nonetheless. It finally came back on around 10 which was just super because now we could sleep with A/C again. Oh the good life.
On Tuesday we spent the day trying to bless this family that had blessed us so much. I did the dishes & cleaned out the fridge (cause really, nobody likes that chore) while Marc did yardwork-mowing, trimming, weeding, the whole time sweating like a pig! That took up nearly the whole day. Afterwards we took Khris & Michelle out to eat at our favorite Columbus spot, Uno's! We wanted to say bye to the awesome manager (who ended up not being there) and we had free appetizer coupons! Heck yes! The food was great but the company was even better. It's so weird how close you can become with people in such a short period of time. I think God gives us little glimpses of Heaven, where you are just surrounded by people you love, but sometimes He shows us here what that is like. A cool side note-they serve at this thing called the Passion conference every Jan. 1-4 in Atlanta. It is essentially a bigger version of Spirit West Coast but they have teaching as well as music and it is geared towards college students. So hopefully we'll be able to meet them down there and serve with them. We are pretty crazy excited about it. :)
Then-the best part of the night-they took us out for ice cream! But this wasn't just any ice cream. It was crazy! A few places we've gone, people tell us, "You have to try this ice cream place. It's the best ice cream you'll ever have." Then when we try it, it's just ice cream, nothing extra spectacular. This, however, was PHENOMENAL. The quality was surreal but the flavors were ridiculous! One was like cinnamon cayenne, so when you first taste it, it's cinnamon-y and yummy, but when you swallow it, it kicks you in the throat in an awesome, delicious way! Marc got goat cheese & raspberry (or something nasty like that) and I got dark chocolate. Man. Talk about BOMB. And that was Tuesday. A pretty sweet day.
On Wednesday morning, Khris made us pancakes (after he ground fresh flour from their grain mill!) and we all had the best pancakes ever for breakfast. Michelle helped Marc change his guitar strings, and then it was time to say goodbye. :( So sad. :( On our way out we stopped at Guitar Center to get Marc a new peg for his guitar & as we were checking out, we started talking to the checkout guy who had just gotten back into church and was loving it! It's so cool the people that God brings us into contact with! Then we headed to Joann's to pick up a few things.
Ok friends, so here is what we're gonna do:
I know I keep talking about them, but get over it and read on! :)
So the Roger's, as I've said, are in the process of adopting a boy from Ethiopia, but the process costs $30,000-40,000! This is something that Marc and I have long talked about, so it is a cause that is dear to our hearts and so we wanted to help out with the costs. Unfortunately we're not rich (duh) so we can't just fork over a ton of money, as much as I wish we could so here is what we want to do: we're going to make stuff (I'll crochet scarves, beanies, stuffed animals, etc and Marc is going to make pendants and jewelry) and sell it with the proceeds going to the baby fund. I don't quite have enough made to put up a page yet, but stay tuned for that. Anyways, so that's what we were doing at Joann's. While we were there, I told Marc, "I wish we had a coupon" and then in my head, I thought, "Maybe the Lord will bless us with a coupon." Two seconds later this woman says, "You need a coupon?" Thank you Jesus!
Ok, I was trying to be brief but it's not working! Fast forward! Pittsburgh!
We get there and find out there is no Wednesday night church-they do their midweek on Tuesdays! Lame sauce! So we didn't have much else to do but go to Starbucks and wait for the night to be over. The next day (Thursday) we hit the city and literally could not find one place to park. Not that we couldn't find a spot, but there was no place to park! Come to find out, the city was built before there were cars so parking spaces weren't taken into account. Because of this, everyone parks in parking structures, but we're too tall for them! So we looked up the mall and found one about 10-15 miles southwest, so we headed there, but google maps did us dirty and it wasn't a real mall. By the time we made it to a real mall (about 10 miles north of our original place, so 20 miles north of where we were), we were so hot and grumpy it was ridiculous! Later that night, we were talking to this guy about where to go in the city and he tell us, "Man, you guys got here at the wrong time!" Nooooooo! Let me give you back story: every single place we've been as far as I can remember, someone has told us, "You guys picked the perfect time to be here." It almost became a joke, but now this guy was telling us we were there at the wrong time! Oh heck no! Were we not supposed to be there?
After praying about it that night and the next morning, we still weren't really sure what we were supposed to do and God didn't say stay or go, so we factored everything and decided to peace out. And so we were off to Buffalo! The only Calvary in the area was a little bit outside of the city of Buffalo so we headed there. They were supposed to be having a prayer & worship night but when we got in, we found out it was postponed because of the holiday. Wah-wah. It looked like we had bad timing once again. We talked to the pastor (Mark) and his wife, Chrissy, for a little bit and then headed out. They had given us the # to this guy at the church, Bob, who had a little storefront in town that he did ministry & evangelism out of. We met up with him there and he was super cool! We hung out in the storefront and talked for a little bit then he took us to see Niagara Falls!!! It was stinking awesome! (I know, I use that word a lot, it's ok!) The closer we got, the thicker the air got...it was heavy and nasty! Crazy story: across the falls on the Canada side, we saw a cable connected to 2 skyscrapers and a dude tightrope walking across it!!! He made it, don't worry. :)
Then Bob treated us to Chipotle (YYUUUMMM!!!) and we went back to his house to shower and spend the night. We got to meet his wife, Colleen, who was a great woman. Here is a funny story about them: When Bob was young, he was a troublemaker so his parents enrolled him in a Christian school but they didn't want to let him in. The only reason they did was because this woman on the board vouched for him and wanted to help him. Well....a few years later he got their 16 year old daughter pregnant but he was so nervous to tell the parents, that he just kept saying, "I'll tell them tomorrow." One day she gets up in the middle of the night with stomach pains so he takes her to the hospital, where she has the baby! She was full term and nobody ever knew! So her parents became grandparents in one day! Pretty funny story! But they've been married now for 30 years and are walking strongly with the Lord. I love their story because, well partly because it's funny, but also because it shows God's plan.
Anywhoo! On Saturday we had breakfast and coffee from Tim Horton's, which is a pretty big coffee chain out here. Their coffee was delicious! Then the 5 of us (we were joined by Bob's hippie friend, Tony) had a Bible study out of Jude before we started our day. Marc spent a lot of the day in preparation for the Bible study they have in the storefront on Saturdays and I probably sat around and did nothing! haha jk. Around 4 we all headed over to the storefront (I'll call it BBS-short for Buffalo Bible Study) to set up. What they do is just hand out free food and invite people who go by to the Bible study. I guess Panera gave them $800 worth of bread so they set up tables and put up a sign that said "FREE BREAD & PASTRIES" and people just kept coming! As people would walk by or drive up, we would invite them to study. Marc was super pushy as always lol. People would be trying to walk by but he would just keep talking to them so eventually they'd stop and get the gospel. There were so many good conversations that happened! It was too hard to write them down because there was always someone there to talk to, so I did that instead and now I don't remember everyone. Around 6ish, Marc went inside for sound check so I stayed outside with one of the other guys to keep drawing people in. It was cool because I saw this guy coming from a long ways away and I knew I was supposed to talk to him but as he got closer, he crossed the street and was on the phone so I couldn't say anything to him. :( Then! About 10 minutes later he walked by going the other way so I called out to him and he came over and we got to talk. He is a believer, but he wasn't really living right and I think was trying to justify it to himself. Mike (the other founder of BBS) kinda took over and was able to minister to him a lot better than I was. The location they have is so perfect! When we first got there, I thought, "Really? This spot? Nothing is going on here!" But as the day went by, more and more people walked by. There is a constant flow of foot traffic there and it's cool because those people will be walking by all the time since they live in the area. What a great opportunity to establish relationships in the community.
So Marc did worship and spoke about the parable of the prodigal son as his testimony related to it. He shared about his past and where the Lord has brought him from and the trip and the amazing things that God has done. It was a blessing to see my husband up there sharing his heart with people. And that was Saturday!
Of course, Sunday morning means church. We headed over to Calvary Chapel Niagara Frontier. What an awesome name! After study we got to stay and serve the church a little bit then eat pizza! MMMM! They were having a study again that evening, so we just hung out at the church until it started. After study, Marc played a few songs for some of the people there. I started talking to this woman I had met that morning, Marilyn. Her & her husband Walt had 2 young girls they adopted from Asia so I was telling her that Marc & I also want to adopt internationally one day so she told me I should go through Americaworld. Coincidentally, that is the company that the Rogers are adopting through! She went on to tell me that she & Walt actually work for them, running seminars in the state of NY! Wow! She also told me that they used to be neighbors with Ken Graves and they're still friends with him! So now we have a Ken Graves connection which is awesome for 2 reasons: 1) he's in a city that we'll be in in a week and a half to 2 weeks, and 2) like every other Calvary man, Marc has a man crush on him. (This will be really awkward for Marc if Ken Graves ever reads this lol but that's ok!) So anyways, that was cool. All awesome stories aside, Marilyn was a super sweet woman and her husband was really giving and nice as well.
On Monday we headed over to the city of Buffalo. We still had some bread left in our van from Saturday night at BBS so we took it into town to find some homeless people to give it to. Let me tell you, Buffalo is really run down! For whatever reason, I always thought that Buffalo was going to be nice, maybe a little uppity, but it was really old and neglected. It was pretty sad. After literally finding zero homeless people, we went back to the BBS storefront. At least people walk by there all the time! Bob met us and we set up and started handing out bread again and telling people about Jesus. I think my favorite story of the day was about this gentlemen named Ernest who was from a small country in the Congo area of Africa. He said he saw us sitting in front of the store so he rushed and came down. Apparently he's been coming to the study for a few weeks now. He is a really nice guy! So this lady stopped to get bread and we were talking to her about the study and she was saying she wanted to come. Then Bob asked her if we could pray for her for anything and at first she seemed like she wanted to give the, "no I'm fine" answer but then she paused and was like, "yeah, everything." She told us how a few years back so lost her mom and her house burned down and she lost her health insurance and just a bunch of stuff like that. So we circled up and I prayed for her but I was done, Ernest looked at her and said, "You have problem with cigarettes." Crazy because she didn't smell like cigarettes at all! So she was astonished, too, and said, "how did you know that?" She told us that she had been trying to quit for years and she had prayed about it and tried everything, but nothing worked, but she needs to quit because she has bronchitis and once bronchitis becomes emphysema, it's irreversible. We circled up again and Ernest prayed for her, but he prayed in his native language. I have no idea what it was, but it was a whole new and awesome experience! It was powerful man. Powerful. As soon as we're done praying, he looks at her and says, "You have problem with beer too." Man, I thought it was about to get crazy, but she was just shocked again! She said, "I do! How did you know? I have had a beer every single day since 2005 when my mom died." It was another thing that she's tried to quit, but hasn't been able to and it was so crazy because it wasn't alcohol or drinking, it was specifically beer. So he prayed for her again! By the time she left, I believe that she was truly touched. We were all so astonished at Ernest! How cool that the Lord used him like that! Another awesome thing about him, he can sing in 4 languages: his native language, English, French, and Swahili! So he sang us one in his language and the only part we understood was, "Hallelujah!" What an amazing experience. :) Of all the people we talked to that day, that was probably my favorite experience.
We went out to dinner with Bob & Colleen and Mike & his wife Candace at this place called Salsarita's, which is kinda like Chipotle but "not as healthy". Man oh man, gotta love good fellowship! After we were done eating, we were asking Mike about the "King James Only" controversy and he began to explain to us the different lines of where the texts came from and why so many people are opposed to other translations. It's funny because when he first started telling us about it, we both thought that it was going to be a weak argument but then, half an hour later, we were flabberghasted. We then went back to Mike & Candace's house so he could make Marc a copy of some teachings. We had some pretty bomb conversation, too! And then it was back to Bob's house, where we stayed the whole time we were in Buffalo.
The next morning, we got up, showered, had our studies, and said goodbye to Buffalo. Our first stop was Niagara Falls, except this time we went across to the Canada side. MUH-stinkin-JESTIC! Holy crap, it was awesome! So we did that and saw the most touristy tourist spot ever. Then it was back to America! We stopped and got buffalo wings at the place Obama went to because apparently, they have the best wings. I wouldn't know cause they didn't have boneless and I don't like bone-in wings, but Marc said they were bomb. And then we drove!
We are currently in the Rochester area of New York. Ever since Iowa, people have been talking about this church, Calvary Chapel Finger Lakes, so we are going to go there tonight for church. Tomorrow we'll go to this city called Palmyra, which was the birthplace of Mormonism. There is a temple there and once a year the y have a huge pageant where they reenact this (fictitious) battle from the book of Mormon. How convenient, the pageant is on Friday! So I'm sure we'll probably stay for that and then head to Vermont. So we think anyways....our plans change often.
Thanks for listening to my rambles :)