Wednesday was set aside for studying and preparation so we literally studied & read all day until it was time for church, when we headed over to CC Finger Lakes. It was kind of weird at first because nobody said hi to us until we sat down. Then this man named Tom introduced himself and we started conversing. We told him about our trip but then study started and that was that. After church, however, he introduced us to a guy named Joe who does a lot of street witnessing. We all talked for a while and then he invited us to his house for pizza. Man, I looooove pizza. :)
We got to meet his wife, Shannon, and their 5 kids (Makayla, Lydia, Abishai, Judea, and Jedidiah) who are super cool! Also hanging out were 2 other awesome couples. One of them, Jake and Gina, we got to spend a lot of time witnessing with, but hold your horses, we'll get there.
After hanging out for forever, they invited us to stay in their spare bed. Sweeeet. Gotta love sleeping in a house! Haha! But for real. So the next day we chilled....again. Marc was going to work with Joe, but he didn't end up needing him so he didn't go. I did laundry and we pretty much just studied all day again. Later that evening, Jake and Gina came over so we headed out to the neighboring city, Canandaigua (pronounced Canon-day-gwa) to witness. We met up at the house of this guy named Nate and then walked up the street to see who we would come across. And it was awesome!! We didn't get very far, maybe about 3 blocks, when there was these 2 guys walking down an alley so Marc & Jake when to the mouth of the alley to talk to them. When they were done talking to them, another guy came, then another guy, then another! People just kept coming out of and into and past this alley! It was amazing! Here we are in this little tiny town with so few people, but God was faithful to bring an abundance! As they witnessed, Gina and I stood off to the side and were talking. As this guy walked by, I kind of had the feeling that I should talk to him, but by the time I was sure of it, he was gone. As people sporadically walked by, I questioned, "Are they the one to talk to?" But they never were. Then, coming up the street was the first guy who started the questioning. As he walked by, I stopped him and we started talking. He was kind of unsure of what he believed-he didn't believe in God because he said that He's never proven Himself to be real, so from there we talked about evolution, mutations, old earth vs. new earth, dinosaurs, all kinds of stuff. It was FANTASTIC. I love conversations like that because so many people think that we have a blind faith and that there is nothing solid behind the Bible. People say, "prove that there is a God" but they don't look at all of the evidence that is around. So he left and Gina tells me that while we were talking, this kid that Marc was talking to accepted the Lord! Yeah!!!! How awesome! His name is Cody. Pray for him because he hangs out with these other kids that have been witnessed to a few times and don't really want anything to do with Jesus. May his faith be an encouragement to them and not the other way around.
After talking to quite a few people, we headed back to Nate's house. Shannon was leaving and taking the kids home so I went with her while Marc, Jake, Gina, Nate, and Joe went back out again. Marc, Jake, and Gina ended up talking to an old ex-Mormon Communist who dabbles in eastern religion for a really long time, but he was really bitter towards God. He said that he believes in science and didn't think that you could know about God or which one is the right one. Hopefully something they said stuck with him.
So Friday rolled around and Marc really did go to work with Joe. They were laying concrete and stamping it to make it look like rocks, so he was gone all day. (Lame, but we're grateful for provision.) When he got back, the 4 of us (including Jake & Gina) headed over to the pageant. What is the pageant you might ask? Well let me tell you. The pageant is a HUGE gathering of Mormons from all over the world. They get together and reenact the (fictitious) events of the Book of Mormon. It's nuts. There are SO many people there! The pageant goes on for a week, minus Sunday & Monday. This is partly why we spent so much time studying. It is a sad thing, the Mormon people are very indoctrinated with religion that is false, but so many of them are not actually taught what their doctrine is. (If you are Mormon and reading this, I invite you to comment so we can talk. Don't be offended, if you felt I was misguided, I expect that you would lovingly seek to show me the truth as well.) As we arrived we prayed that God would lead us to the right people, the ones who had doubts or weren't really sure what they believed. As we walked through the gates, we ran into these 2 kids (16 & 18yrs old) and got to talk and share with them a little bit. One of them is going to be a missionary in a few months, but awesomely, we got him to commit to reading his Bible. Pray for him. The word of God is powerful.
So we sat down and watched the show, but as we were sitting there we just realized that it was completely bogus that we were there. We wouldn't watch a movie filled with blasphemy, so why watch this show? So we left and that was Friday.
Saturday was a lot more eventful, I think.We planned on leaving that day and so we got up and decided to stop at a few places on the way out. Another neighboring city (Palmyra) is actually where Mormonism was birthed so they have a lot of sites in the area. With the pageant in town, the city was overflowing with tourists, so we headed to the former home of Joseph Smith. They have this place called the "sacred" grove where the angels supposedly spoke to him, so we walked towards there, but as we did, we stopped to sit on this bench so Marc could write. Eventually an older couple sat next to us
The gentleman was talking to us about the religion and where we were and it's importance to their religion. Just as we were about to get into the "good stuff", their ride came and so they left. In talking to them, Marc gained a heart for the Mormon people. They are truly, truly deceived and it's so sad because they believe it with all of their hearts.
So they left and these teenagers walked up so we started talking to them. Marc asked the boy how he knows Mormonism is true, and he replied, "because I like their doctrine of 'families forever'." Well, liking doctrine does not make something true or not but this is a very typical answer. Soon after, his mom came and so we started talking to her but she, too, gave circular answers and didn't accept anything that we had to say. We left there so saddened.
Before we left town, we went back to Joe & Shannon's house so we could say goodbye. So we got there, thanked them for everything, and headed out. We got about 3 minutes away when we knew we weren't done, so we turned around and came back. It was the cutest thing, we pulled into the driveway and told the kids, who were playing, that we came back so they all went rushing inside yelling at their mom that we were back. Tiiiiight.
Coming over for dinner was a woman named Jen and her 5 kids (Micah, Jonah, Abigail, Lilah, and Elizabeth....I think). They have a crazy, awesome, only God could do that, kind of story! They are moving to Uganda to serve the Lord there. Like, moving, moving, not visiting. And not only that, but they aren't moving to a city, they are moving in the bush. With 5 kids. Two of them being babies. What a brave woman! But how awesome to see them following God's calling even when it would never have been what they would have imagined, but he is totally providing for it! (you can check out their blog if you want: www.curlyheadedfamily.blogspot.com). Anywho, they came over for dinner then Marc, Joe, Jake, Gina & I met this guy named Billy in town and we all split up to go share the gospel!
First we came across these 4 girls who ranged in age, the oldest being 17. She had so many questions and was unsure of a lot but we answered all that we could and set her on the right path, hopefully! We gave them our cards in case they had questions, so hopefully they'll call. :) As we walked we handed tracts to people, waiting for opportunity. This one couple walked by and they were just so nice! I felt like we should have talked to them but by the time I was going to, they were already gone. Sigh. So we walked on & caught up with Jake & Gina. As we walked, Gina & Jake started talking to these 2 girls & Marc went to go stand by the water. Then the guy on the bench next to the water recognized him, and I'm thinking, "What the heck, no way he knows someone here!" It was the guy from Hot Topic! This time Marc got to share the gospel with him! So I'm standing there and I turn around and all of a sudden, there is that couple that had walked by earlier! Sweet! So I stopped them and told them that I appreciated how nice they were! And they totally were! It was awesome! By now, Marc was back and so the 4 of us were talking. After a little while, I asked them if they believed in God and they do! They are Catholic & Christian, if I remember correctly. We talked about God and what He's been doing in their lives. It was seriously, a really awesome conversation.
So Marc & my conversations were over and we were standing there talking about what just happened with this woman walked by and went and sat alone on the far bench with her head down. Marc told me what I already knew....I had to go talk to her. So I did! I walked over to her and asked her a question and she gave me an answer that I've gotten quite a few times. "No speak English". Greeeeat. So I attempted but it just didn't work, so I went back over to Marc, who had been joined by Jake & Gina. As we talked, I really felt very strongly that I was supposed to talk to her, but how? I don't speak Spanish! I took French in high school!!! So we were about to pray and I said, "I got it!" and went back over to her and told her all of the Spanish I could think of in that moment: Jesus Christo te amo. She said thank you and I asked if she was ok. She said yes, and that was that. It was an interesting encounter for sure.
We walked around for a while longer & talked to a few more people then started heading back. As we did, we ran into this girl that they had witnessed to before so we talked to her for a few minutes. By this time, Joe & Billy had caught up with us so we all headed back.
One more awesome story: they met this 13 year old kid who they passed a tract to and asked if he had one. He said, "Yeah, I saw one on the ground on the 4th of July (they passed out a ton of them that day) so I picked it up and read it. It's pretty deep." So they got to talk and share with him about it. How cool is that? You never know what God can do with tracts!
So as we started walking back, Marc took off into the field we were walking by and started talking to this homeless guy. He needed food so we went and brought him some and Marc witnessed to him, but he didn't seem very interested in anything, even the food. And that was about it for the night!
On Sunday morning, we woke up to rain. Awesome. That is a totally sarcastic awesome because our top window in our van was open. So lame. After church we pretty much spent the day washing our blankets and bedding and airing out the van. Sounds fun, huh? Oh, no? That's cause it wasnt'!!! But anyways, so that was another day we hadn't planned on staying in Canandaigua, but it was cool because later that night at church we met Jake's uncle who lives in Philly. The cool part about this story is that he works for an apartment complex and can find us an empty apartment to stay in while we're there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonnna be a grown up for a week! :)
After church we met Pastor Tony. Jake had been talking about him all week. Apparently he is a honey badger. Look it up. We got to talk to him and he answered some of Marc's questions about the book of Daniel and then it was back to Joe's house!
And then came Monday, time to leave. For real this time. So we left! It was almost a 7 hour drive to Montpelier, Vermont. We walked around the city for a bit and scoped it out. The people didn't seem very friendly, which is weird because usually people who live in "outdoorsy" type places are super nice! And then it was home to bed.
Tuesday morning we walked around the "mall". Let me explain to you their mall. You have Walmart all the way on the left, not a very large one either. Then there you exit Walmart but are still in the building. Then there is a payless, a JoAnn's and about 8 other Mom & Pop stores until you get to JCPenney's, on the otehr end. Their food court consists of Simply Subs (even though they serve other food) and that is it. You can walk end to end in about 45 seconds, if that. So we explored that, then ate breakfast & had our studies and headed out to the capitol building where we took a tour with a Jewish family who spoke Hebrew! Fantastic! The tour guide suggested that everyone get a "maple cremee" while in Vermont. After the tour we walked around town a little while, looking for opportunity and then we headed to Morse Farm to get a maple cremee! One lady that we met said we had to get it with Maple Sugar on it. Sugar on my ice cream? Heck yes! Oh yeah, cremee just basically is soft serve. It was DELICIOUS. Seriously. I'm kinda mad that I'm never going to have another one. We needed an oil change but by this time it was too late, so we headed back to the mall. It had started to rain so we couldn't be outside and the nearest Starbucks was about 35 miles away, so we went back to the mall and sat on a bench playing cards while we charged our phone & laptop. (Our laptop powers our fan, which is a must when it is raining and hot and you can't have the windows open.) It was a pretty lame night! Although, one guy did stop Marc and ask him if they knew each other. After talking, Marc left him with a tract, which he stood there and read all of, then yelled across the courtyard area "Thank you!" Weird....never had that happen before.
And that was Montpelier. Turns out, only about 8,000 people live there so we thought it would be a better use of our time to go to Burlington, which has just over 42,000 people. Not to mention, there is a Calvary Chapel just south of there. So we got up and fulfilled a Vermont must: pancakes with maple syrup! No lie, we killed so much of their syrup! I was almost embarrassed! But it was so good! If you've never had Vermont maple syrup, you have got to try it! Next stop: oil change. Fastest oil change I've ever gotten. It literally took them about 7 minutes from the time that we pulled in. As soon as you pull in, this girl goes to work on your tires. You stay in your car (if you want) and they get all of your info and then like 2 seconds later, they're done. It was nuts. And then we were off to Burlington! Pit stop at the Ben & Jerry's factory for a tour and a free sample of ice cream. Oh deliciousness.
And then we were in Burlington! We parked and walked around. The first guy Marc tried witnessing to was a Catholic that didn't believe you could have assurance of salvation. As they talked, he just kept talking about Shakespeare and how awesome his writing was. Oooookay. So we got down to the water's edge (Lake Champlain) and sat on a bench to have our study. About 10 minutes later, this guy who was previously sitting behind us, got up in front of us and was playing a beat really loudly and rapping even louder. Marc tells me, "This guy is just asking for my attention, so I'll give it to him." So eventually he got to to talk with him. He believes in God but I don't think he's ever read his Bible. He was unsure of a lot and so Marc got to talk with him for about 15, 20 minutes about walking with the Lord and what it means. While he was doing that, these 2 people from North Carolina overheard. They introduced themselves to Marc and gave him a little tract they had received & Marc passed it on to the rapstar. (I forget his name.) I got to talk to them for a couple minutes, they were super nice and encouraged by our story. Sweet.
From there, we finished our study and went on. Next we met a guy from Philly who said that he didn't want to go to church because he wasn't ready to give up his lifestyle and he didn't want to be a hypocrite. That is good in theory, except that tomorrow is not prmised! So they talked for a few minutes and we walked on.
It was a very interesting, long day! About half of the people we talked to were homeless. At one point, Marc started talking to this one homeless guy then when they were about done, his friend came so Marc talked to him. Then another 2 guys came and Marc talked to them & so on. That lasted for about 30-45 minutes.
The story of the day, I think, came a little bit earlier than that. Marc started talking to this guy and they were talking for about 15 minutes when Marc calls me over and says, "This guy said that he's never sinned. He's never told a lie, he's never lusted. He's never hated anyone because he believes it's irrational. He says he's never sinned." So I asked him if he's accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord & Savior. When he said no, I said, "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a sin. You've sinned." I didn't know what it was about this guy but as soon as we started talking, he just instantly made me so mad. Mad like I haven't been on this whole trip' almost uncontrollably. He seemed as though he was out to try to twist everything we said. He himself wouldn't take a solid stance on very much but just kept asking questions that had already been answered and misinterpreting things. He would say that he thought God was greedy and that why should His opinion be imposed on people. I kept out of it a lot because my flesh was going crazy. He was pissing me off and I didn't know why. I just prayed a lot for Marc and that God would help me to be calm and loving. Then he said, "Well Satanists are Christian because they believe that Jesus was real." Dang. I corrected him quickly, but soon left it up to Marc again who calmly just kept bringing him back to scripture. Shortly after, he admitted to being a Satanist. No wonder. Marc talked with him for a while longer, but eventually he said that he felt demolished and walked away mid conversation. That was intense and crazy. Afterwards, Marc said that he felt tired, like he had just done battle.
There were a few more people we talked to that day. God is so good! We were literally out for hours and hours! And that's about it. Now you are up to date with our lives. I believe we'll be here until Saturday and then head up to Bangor, Maine. Such is the plan as of now. :)
um awesome. Erie Canal!
and there it is!
the fruitful alley :)
the pageant
Gina & Jake Codding. awesomeness!
Joe & Shannon's dog, Silas.
I know he looks like pure evil, but he is the sweetest dog ever!
Joe & Shannon (and Jedidiah!)
who named this city?!
nice lil farm house
state #18!!!
dude. we see corn EVERYWHERE! You'd think
America lives solely on corn!
A few pictures of the GORGEOUSNESS of Vermont!
notice the first line in the yellow box:
"Free Ben & Jerry's"
Montpelier
not a very good angle, but an amazing door!
not a very impressive state house
but it was alright
In the Vermont Senate. I want those stamps.
Yes that is a huge drum full of Vermont Maple
syrup that you pump out.
Morse Farm's backyard
Maple cremee covered in Maple sugar. oh glorious day.
all of the different sizes of Maple syrup
that's right.... $56.95 for a gallon.
glorious.
oooh yeah!
Ben & Jerry's!
these are fake. in case you didn't know.
sorry I don't feel like turning it.
I learned this pose from my college roommates
Lily, seeing your pic: "BONNIE!!!!"
ReplyDeleteKK: "You miss your Bonnie?"
Lily with a pouty face: "Mm-hmm"
We are praising God for you both, and praying for your mom today. <3