Arkansas! (Ar-kin-saw, or as I prefer, Ar-kin-sas)

When we arrived in Arkansas, the first thing we noticed was that there was no “Welcome to Arkansas!” sign! Nnnoooo! That’s ok, we’ll get it on the way out.
It was a long drive from Jackson to Little Rock, probably around 6-7 hours. For some reason, if the GPS says it takes 5 hours, it will take us 6. It’s weird ‘cause we definitely drive either the speed limit or just under it, so it should take us about the same time, but it never does!
Anyways, so by the time we got here, it was just about dusk. We planned on going to church, but by they only had a Sunday service. Their “midweek” was at someone’s house and by the time we got the address for the 7:00 study, it was 6:50 & we were 45 minutes away so that was a no go.
When we first arrived, we got the feeling that Arkansas was going to be a lot like Mississippi-not very much to see and even less to do. We went to Starbucks that night to sit and take care of business. Usually we can talk to the baristas about what there is to do in the area, but even these ones didn’t offer much help. We went to sleep a little discouraged but hopeful for the next day.
Thursday was fantastic! In the morning we got up and walked around the mall, which was dead! But fair enough, it was still early. Afterwards, we went to Barnes & Noble where we sat and had our Bible studies then looked around for a little bit before heading downtown to the River Market. It so far, seems to be the best thing to do in Little Rock. It’s a few blocks of shops and restaurants, but it backs onto a park that faces the Arkansas River that divides Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The park is pretty much the sweetest park ever. It has a “boulder climbing wall” and underground tunnels that connect different areas of the park. It even has a large water area that the kids can activate. Sweetness! I want to play around the park, but there’s always kids here. Jerks. :)
Here’s a pretty sweet story. Well it doesn’t start off very sweet, but here it goes. Unfortunately, Marc’s parents have to move out of their house in the next couple of weeks, which leaves us with a few issues to resolve, one of them being Marc's Blazer. We got it a few years back because it was the twinkle in Marc's eye and, don't get me wrong, he loves it, but it is sitting in the driveway and needs to go and it needs to go fast. He's tried to sell it a few times and a couple times he almost did (to the same guy) but it always fell through. So now we had a bit of a dilemma. There was one guy we met who kinda wanted it, but he only wanted to pay $600-800, which was fine because he's the homie and it's gotta go, so that's what we were going to let it go for. Five minutes after getting off of the phone with him, the guy who we almost sold it to a couple years ago (who we haven't talked to since we left Cali) texts us and asks if we still have it because he wants to buy it. For $2,500. Man, God is good. It's just sweet because He's always pulling things out of the woodwork that we never expect. It is a little worrisome because he's going to make payments on it, but pretty much as long as he makes  of them, it's more than we would have gotten. See how good God is? It's so true when he tell us not to worry and that He's going to take care of it but so often we limit Him to what we would be able to do and forget that He's God! He's not limited by anything!
So back to Thursday-we walked up and down the streets looking in different shops. One of the first ones we went into was the “Clinton Museum Store”. Bill Clinton is from Arkansas, so his Presidential Library is located here. It’s not free so we didn’t go, but the store is, so in we went. After making small talk with the shop owner, California came up and what perfect weather we have, then some random dude chimed in about the heat in Texas. Marc asked him where he was from in Texas and he said, “I’m not sure, I lived there in my past life.” He went on to explain that he believes in God and the Bible, but they don’t talk about everything and that God told him about his past life. So they took their conversation outside of the store and marc tried to explain to him that that isn’t what the Bible teaches, but to no avail. Then the dude lost interest and walked away.
As we walked, there were a couple other little conversations started, but nothing really took. I think because people are much more cordial and polite here in the South, it’s easy to get a conversation started but not as easy to keep it going. We did stop this one guy named Cortez that Marc got to talking to. Even though he’s been to church his whole life, he chooses to believe in reincarnation rather than what the Bible says. Sadly, we couldn’t talk for too long because he was on his way to work. Usually what happens with instances like that are that people just pick what ideology they would like to be true but don’t really stop ot examine the problems with it. For example, birth rates vs. death rates-they aren’t equal. Also, if reincarnation is true, there still has to be a higher power that decides what you come back as-a higher, moral judge who has power over life and death but nobody thinks about these things, they just say what sounds good to them.
A short while later, we came across these 2 high school seniors who were walking around “Instagramming”. If I had a newer phone, I feel like I would have instagram just so I didn’t feel old and aged out. Anyways, we talked to them for a little bit (Abby & Skyler) and she “grammed” us, and we just took a regular picture of them. They are both believers-she’s going to Chicago this week for missions! And he is going to school for musical theater, so one day, when he’s famous, I’ll have an awesome story to tell about him.
It was getting later by this point, but we were still moseying about. We walked by these 3 high school boys sitting at a table so we stopped. They all said they hoped to go to heaven when they died and that they believed in God but when Marc asked why they should get in, all of them said, “I never really thought about it before”. What’s crazy about this is that they go to a Christian school, which means they at least have chapel once a week and yet, they don’t know how to get to heaven. It was cool, at first they weren’t too into paying attention to what Marc was saying, but as he got more into it, they were very attentive. He explained what exactly Jesus has done for us and what our response should be. They seemed really interested, but unfortunately their teacher came over and hauled them back to the fundraiser they were supposed to be helping with. But they heard and hopefully it sticks with them.
Friday was similar-we hung around the same area, from the Clinton library down to the park. The first guy we came across was this kid who had a piece of cardboard and was sliding down a massive hill. He, too, had been going to church for quite some time and had no idea how to get to heaven-the conundrum of the South I suppose.
Abby & Skyler from the day before had told us about this trolley that we had seen everywhere-its only $1 to ride around as long as you want, and its almost like a tour where the driver tells you about the buildings and the city, so we hopped on! It wasn’t as exciting as it sounded like it would be, but it was funny because this girl started telling us how Catholics and atheists and all other religions have got it all wrong and she just jumped right into talking about God, it was pretty sweet. Her friend jumps in and says, “I don’t know if you could tell, but she thinks she has the gift to preach!” I told her, “That’s good, we were just about to evangelize you if you didn’t get to us first!” Then the bus driver piped in by saying that she doesn’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites. “True,” I told her, “but you can’t really be a hypocrite unless you stand for something. People who stand for nothing can’t really be hypocrites because they don’t have any ideals to not meet. And besides, the mall is full of hypocrites, but you probably still go there.” She said that she believed in God but just didn’t go to church.
After we got off of the trolley, we walked back to Riverfront Park to see what we could find. Our first encounter was with this guy who started laughing right when he walked up to Marc. “What’s so funny?” Apparently the guy was really high, but sober enough to know that he needed Jesus and was living a terrible life. He said that he knew he needed God, but didn’t know what to do but when Marc tried to show him some verses and talk to him, he said he had to go and off he went.
So we made it to the park and posted up at a table so Marc could work on making his pendants. Soon after, he got a call from Robert and was walking around talking to him. After about 45 minutes, I thought, “Dang, this fool has been gone forever!” So I look around the park and there he is, sitting on a bench talking to some dude. After another 10 minutes or so, they came over so Marc could show him some verses. His whole family is religious but he stopped going to church a while back for whatever reason and was currently on a quest for truth. They had a fantastic conversation and talked about all kinds of things, but as always, he had to go.
Not too long after, a kid rolled in on his long board. If there is anything Marc is great at talking to teenagers about, it’s longboarding. This kid (Addison I think) cracked me up. Everything Marc said, he responded with, “Yezzir”. I’m used to people down South saying Ma’am and Sir a lot, but he didn’t just say “Yes sir,” he ran it together to “yezzir” and said it A LOT. At the beginning of the conversation, he said he didn’t believe in God but by the end, he told Marc that he never knew there was so much evidence. Sweet. We left him with a card and a couple of websites to check out.
As we were walking back to the van, I noticed how starving I was so I found some trail mix in the trash can, I’m just kidding, it was in Marc’s bag. Then as we were walking, I was eating it and we passed this homeless guy. I was so crazy hungry and then I suddenly felt selfish. The thought crossed my mind, what if he hasn’t eaten all day? So we went and got him some dinner in the name of Jesus of course and then stopped again on the way back to the van to talk to this kid named Zach. Crazy life man. He said he believed in God and he knew verses, but his language and conduct didn’t reflect the heart of God. Marc was able to share with him for a bit. They were in the middle of their conversation when these two guys came up, handing out tracts and gave them one. Zach, apparently, had interacted with them before and wasn’t too fond of them. Marc pointed out that he had been telling Zach the same thing as those 2 guys, but because his approach was so much more relational, it made all of the difference. He was actually listening and considering what Marc had to say rather than just being put off by him. And that was about it for Friday.
Saturday morning we did the usual! Got up, ate breakfast, and went to the park to have our studies. Fortunately, I discovered that the park has outlets where we can charge up…..for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This eliminates the need for Starbucks! There is even wi-fi close by! How sweet! So anyways, we had our studies and worked on some projects. When 1:00 rolled around, we headed down to the main street for a St. Patrick’s day parade. It was pretty uninteresting. Although, being around people with unruly, rude children doesn’t really help. Afterwards we went back to the park to finish what we had started that morning.

There was a guy kinda lingering around our table watching his daughter, so we got to talk to him a little bit but he left early enough that we didn't have a great opportunity to share with him. 

And that's about it for Arkansas. It started really well and we had a lot of opportunity, but now it is time to move on. Thank you Little Rock! :)

the capitol building!

we never made it in but it sure did look sweet

:)

At the Clinton Museum Store-they put out pins so

visitors can pinpoint where they're from.

There were probably 6-8 other maps including world maps, that look like 

this. This was one of the "old" ones.

Little Rock!

If I lived in Little Rock, I would take pictures here often!

Frank-one of the guys Marc talked to

Skyler & Abby-2 awesome high school seniors

that we met. They "grammed" us and that

made me feel old haha

Another view of Little Rock, with a sweet park

River Market-great place

riding the trolley around town

Tevaris (sp?) & Marc having a forever long, awesome convo

Little Rock Central High School

the first high school to desegregate

the kid who said, "I didn't know there was so much evidence"

So in the beginning of this blog, I said that we were going to get the Arkansas state sign on the way out of the state, but on our way out, this is what we got. We were on a bridge with no shoulder and it was raining so we couldn't stop. So our streak of getting a picture in front of every state sign has sadly been broken. Unless we have another opportunity later, but as of now, here it is. :(