Here we are in Jackson, Mississippi, but I'm getting ahead of myself! First we have to leave Alabama!
On Wednesday, February 27th, the McTigue & Kilbourne families arrived in Foley. We spent a good chunk of the day helping them unpack and get settled in and then it was off to church. I taught the kids that night. I just had the Snow kids but we had so much fun! I love those little guys. We made paper & rubber band guitars and they put on a show for me. It was super fun!
On Thursday we prepared to leave. Kristine and Stephen had a goodbye dinner for us so we helped a little bit in the preparation and then went to hang out with our new friends, Jesse, Becca, and Kegan for some tea, curry, and as always, great conversation. Then it was back to Stephen & Kristine's for an awesome night! We introduced everyone to the game of fishbowl and the girls won because we were more awesome and then we played Quelf! Always a good time to be had at the Underwood residence. :)
On Friday we tentatively planned on leaving around 11, but here's how our day went instead:
8:30-10:45 laundry
11:00-12:30-lunch with Stephen, Kristine, & Mallory at Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls.
12:30-Jesse's house for one last good-bye coffee date
1:30-post office
1:45-church to drop off chairs that we borrowed
2:00-back to the house to pick up our game that we left
.....and then FINALLY off to Louisiana! This trip definitely forces you to be laid back. I'd flip out if I was 3 hours late for something, but I have a pretty lenient boss. :)
The moving truck!!!
Some of the cutest kids ever!
my feast :)
saying goodbye to our friends:
So we got to New Orleans in the evening, it was almost dark. First order of business: find French Quarter, park, walk! If you've never been to New Orleans, let me tell you a little bit about it. I imagine we thought the same thing about it that many foreigners think when they first go to Hollywood. The only thing you can think to say, and you do, every time you turn your head is, "What the heck?!" There are so many weird, crazy, awesome things to see there. So we parked & started walking towards the heart of it and we came across this guy named Giro who was homeless & asked for money for coffee. Instead of giving him money, we took him down the street and got him a cup. He said that he was a believer and sounded like he knew what he was talking about, which is awesome. So we talked for a few minutes and then continued walking. We came across a shop that didn't have crude t-shirts hanging all over the place, so we went in to look for postcards. As we were checking out, Marc asked the cashier how his day had been going and that turned into a discussion that lasted about 40 minutes about life, New Orleans, and most importantly, God. Unfortunately, we were finally interupted by people who wanted to buy something, as if we were in a store or something. Sheesh. :) So on we walked when we came across another guy who asked for money, this time to feed some kids. So we started walking with him to McDonald's so we could get some food and he kept thanking Marc so finally Marc told him that we were doing it to show God's love. And here we go. Then he stopped in his tracks and put his hands together and was thanking Jesus and said that he believes in God. So Marc asks him, "What are you doing out here drunk then man?" "Why not?" he asks, "God put it here for us to enjoy so why can't we enjoy it? Tell me why." So the conversation continued on with Marc trying to answer him and continually being cut off by the dude saying, "God put it here for us, tell me why I can't enjoy it. You're ruining it for the rest of us." The weird part is that he was quoting a nice amount of scripture. Marc started to say something about Israelites and then he flipped out even more saying, "Oh no, you're Old Testament, I'm under grace. I'm not under the law, I'm under grace now. Don't talk to me from the Old Testament, show me where it says it in the New Testament. Man, you are ruining it for the rest of us." Again, Marc started trying to tell him and then he gets down on his knees and tells Marc, "Come down here!" So Marc gets down with him and he starts going through Jesus' crucifixion asking, "Do you believe that Jesus did this and that." I don't remember his exact words, at least until he asked about Jesus' skin being ripped off, at which point he started grabbing at Marc and pulling at his sweater. Talk about a bizarre experience man. Of course, Marc agreed, so then the guy gets up and by this point he's yelling about grace and the Old Testament. Then he says, "Man, I don't even want your food," then cusses us out and walks away. It was SO WEIRD!!!! And really sad that someone can be so side tracked on issues and what they want to do rather than just following the Lord. We shouldn't be focusing on furthering our agenda if our agenda isn't the gospel or productive towards the gospel.
Moving on from there, we walked around for a bit but it was getting later and so we started walking towards the van. On the side of the road there was a couple of street kids sitting with a sign so we stopped to talk to them. The guy is only 23 and he's from Riverside! Small world! We talked to them for a little while and then continued our trek to the van. After about a block, we came across a group of 5 or 6 people praying on the street corner so we stopped again. They were a group trying to raise money for a missions trip to Jamaica by singing on the corner. Sweet! As we were talking to them, there were a couple of guys hanging nearby listening, so afterwards we talked to them. It was an interesting experience-he knew scripture very well and said that he was a believer so I have no reason to believe that he wasn't....except the beer can in his hand and the 6 empty ones on the ground. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a Christian can't have a beer, that's not the point I'm trying to get at, but it also isn't the image a Christian should be representing. If our lives are to be used to bring others to Christ, why would we want to put forth that image? Does it bring glory to God or pleasure to ourselves?
And then finally we were back in the van and off to Walmart to sleep.
On Saturday morning we headed back to the French Quarter. We had been previously advised to go to Cafe du Monde for beignets (pronounced ben-yays) and coffee, so we did! And it was CRAZY packed! The line to sit outside was obnoxiously long-probably 50 people! So we sat inside which I'm not sure was a better choice but it gave us more time to walk around later.
my cafe au lait & our plate of beignets :) mmmmmm
the workers hustlin!
We walked around for a little bit in the market place where TONS of vendors set up and then headed into the Cathedral across the park. It was really windy out so we decided to sit inside and have our studies there rather than try to find somewhere outside & be freezing. After a little while, Marc leans over to me and says, "I think I'm supposed to open air preach," to which I responded, " . . . . . . . . . . . in here?!" "No, no, outside!" Phew! Man, I wasn't sure how to handle that! But since it was outside, I was totally cool with it. So out we went. He stood on the stairs, silently for a minute and then started with, "Excuse me, do any of you need hope? Do any of you need love?" and went on to share what God has brought him from and done in him. The whole thing only lasted a few minutes with nothing really going on. One guy about 20 feet away yelled, "Shut up" once and a few people stopped here and there to listen but that was about it. Although, the few tables of tarot card readers sure did hear the gospel. :)
We walked around for a little while more but after we had a couple conversations and seen what seemed like endless street performers, we wound up back at the van and headed out for Baton Rouge, the capitol of Louisiana. We hadn't really planned on being there until Wednesday but we figured why not just get there a little early. We hit up some friends we had there & let them know we were on our way so we made plans to meet up at church the next morning. And that was our Saturday!
some of the "what the heck" moments:
this (above) is a transformer!
see!
this awesome Cathedral that we saw
and the inside of it was pretty!
Marc open air preaching between the cathedral and tarot card readers
French Quarter!
this big weird character!
We saw a ton of musicians!
a bridal party second lining it
(apparently that's what it's called when you walk
down the street in a huge party)
Sunday morning we woke up to a text from a mutual friend that said "I don't know if you've heard, but Brittany & Daniel had their baby last night!" Wow! What timing! Baby Julian was born at 2:28 am at 33 weeks. Because he was a little premature, he had to stay in the hospital and of course, Brittany and Daniel spent most of their time there with him. We were really excited for them and just figured we would stay in the van rather than with them. No problem at all! But then they called us and told us they still wanted us to stay at their house so we headed over to walk the dog. The next day we waited all day for their furniture to be delivered and set up. It was a nice day to chill and catch up on projects!
Tuesday morning we were at the church at 8am to paint the bricks on the building. The pastor, Mitch, had been wanting it done for quite some time but because he's a working pastor, he just hadn't had time to get to it yet, so we were happy to do it for him! There were a total of 355 bricks (according to his count). So we worked on it for 8 hours and got just over halfway done! We were pooped!
That night, Pastor Mitch and his wife Melissa treated us to dinner at Dempsey's, a southern food restaurant. Marc had his first fried crawfish po'boy and I had a fried chicken one. Turns out a poboy is basically a sub. But don't get me wrong, it was delicious!
The next morning, we finished painting the rest of the bricks. Man, let me tell you, painting bricks is tedious! You have to get all the nooks and crannies without wasting too much paint. It was nice to work side by side with Marc all day. :) That night we had dinner with a couple that we had met on Sunday, Johnny & Faith. They are a super awesome couple with an adorable little 6 month old. After dinner, we headed to church for their prayer meeting. It was a very nice, intimate group.
On Thursday morning, we headed back to Faith's house for crochet lessons! I tried to teach her & Melissa how to crochet, but I'm not sure that I can explain things very well. Either way, it was a good time of fellowship and hanging out with new friends. It's funny to compare how easy it is now for me to hang out with new people as opposed to 2 years ago. I never really saw the need to branch out, so I didn't really. I accepted people who came along, but I had good friends and didn't really see the need for new great friends. Now I am almost forced to make new friends all of the time and I love it. I might go crazy if I didn't, although it does make it hard because I hate the idea of never seeing most of these people again. At least, not until we get to heaven. Anyways, so that was that! Afterwards, Laura, another girl who was there, offered to treat us to lunch so she, Faith, Deacon (her 6 mo), Marc, and I headed out to a delicious lunch! After great conversation and a yummy sandwich, we headed out to the state house for our usual tour and then for a walk at their outdoor mall. We were looking for people to witness to and also looking for the perfect ice cream and/or coffee shop. It was our 3 year anniversary that day so we wanted to relax and hang out for a little bit. Instead of doing it at a coffee shop, we got ice cream, got a movie with our free redbox code, and then went back to the house and hung out with each other. It was the perfect night!
Painting the church
we started being a tad silly with the paint....
my fried chick poboy!
our 2nd day of painting.
We forgot to take a before picture so this
is as good as it gets. :)
and after!
us & Johnny & Faith
Mitch, Melissa, & Faith's baby, Deacon
Statehouse!
"I can't hear you. la la la la la la la la la."
the view from the top of the statehouse
for our anniversary dinner, Marc heated up leftovers for me :)
and lit a candle!
AND he did the dishes. What love :)
Ice cream and a movie! Sweet! Happy anniversary to us!
The next morning, we made breakfast for Brittany & Daniel as a thank you for being so awesome! And then they put us to work! Marc painted a baker's rack while I painted a shelf and in between did laundry. Because the baby came so early and unexpectedly, there was still a lot to be done! Including all of Julian's laundry! So I spent a good chunk of the day washing, sorting, and folding baby clothes. I can't even tell you how many times I must have said "aaaaaawwwww look at this!" It's crazy to believe that these clothes are for humans! They're so small!
Later that night, Mitch and Melissa came over and brought crawfish with them! Marc was super excited to have an authentic Louisiana experience! It was kind of cool, he brought them in a bag then they put a huge piece of cardboard down on the counter, dumped them out, then went to town! I tried a bite of them and it wasn't bad (or good lol) until I got to the end and felt/heard a crunch. Then I got grossed out and couldn't do it so I had pizza while everyone else chowed down on crawfish. It's just too weird to me to eat something that is looking at me, although I will say, if I had to pretend to like it, I could. It wasn't disgusting, it just didn't really appeal to me.
We did learn something interesting for you to remember if you ever go to Louisiana....or a crawfish boil. If their tail is flat, that means they were dead before they went in the water and you shouldn't eat them. Interesting.
we made breakfast for Brittany & Daniel, our gracious hosts :)
our breakfast of choice: chilequiles
that's Marc, sucking the juice out. sick.
the aftermath, or as Daniel called it,
"the crawfish cemetery"
Brittany, Willow, Daniel, Marc, Benny, & me
(p.s. I love that corgi! he's adorable!)
And that was it for our time in Louisiana! Stay tuned for Mississippi!
We're trying to get back to one week per state so I should be blogging more. Of course, if the Lord has us to stay places for longer then that's fine, just telling you our plans. :)
