St. Louie, Missouri (yes I know, Misery, as everyone says)

Welcome to Missouri!

I’m not sure what I expected from St. Louis. Marc expected it to be run down and dangerous, seeing as it’s usually in the top 5 cities around the country for crime. We got there on a Wednesday, as you can read in my last blog, and were pleasantly surprised. Despite the fact that I was sick as a dog on Wednesday night, we had a pretty wonderful time. We met some new friends who were familiar with our pastor back home. They took us in, which was awesome because they gave us an escape from the heat and sweat shower (aka humidity) going on outside. It was funny, during the 2 months that we were at home recently, we were out and about and somebody mentioned something about the humidity being really high that day. I couldn’t help but laugh at loud. I, too, used to be blissfully naïve of true humidity-then I got to Texas, and most states east of it. How people do it, I just don’t know.

Picking up our St. Louie adventures, we spent most of Thursday recovering from the night before. I wanted to go to sleep at 10/11 the night before because I was so tired, but ended up being up until 2:30 (ish) because I was so sick I couldn’t sleep. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I guess I’m not so young anymore! (Weird.) Marc spent a good chunk of the morning calling different hospitals and looking things up online to see what our options were, and eventually fell back asleep. By the time we finally got up and out of bed, it was an embarrassing hour of the day, but I was feeling MUCH better than the night before. We had some breakfast-I was terrified to eat anything because I thought I had gallstones-and then we headed out to see what STL had to offer. Our first (and turns out, only) stop was the most famous landmark in St. Louis-the arch! It was definitely larger than I expected! At the base, each side measures in at 54 feet and tapers down to 17 feet at the peak of the arch. We didn’t ride up to the top, it was $14 or something like that, which would be enough gas to drive 100 miles. Weird when you think of it in terms of gas. Usually I say it would be 28 $1 burritos, which is a lot of burritos. So gas or burritos, it was just too much. We did go in the museum they had underground, but I started feeling gross again, so we headed back to the van. On the way, as we stood at the crosswalk, Marc struck up a conversation with a man who was walking the same way as us. After a couple minutes, I think he suspected what was coming, so he said goodbye and took off another way. That just about did it for Thursday.

Friday was much better and much more eventful. I had still been having slight cramps and nausea, although nothing compared to what it was. Marc was worried and a few friends back home told me I needed to go, so we found a walk-in clinic we could go to and went to see what was wrong with me. Turns out, there was no doctor on sight at the time. Instead, I waited to see the nurse who didn’t really do anything except check my vitals to make sure nothing serious was wrong. She said that I could come back to see a doctor, but that I likely just had a virus. I thought she was crazy, there could be no way that’s all it was, but I said thank you and we left.

We were told that University City was a good place to walk around. They have a street of shops and restaurants called the U City Loop, so off we went. There weren’t a ton of people, especially for a Friday, but we were able to stop and have a few good conversations. The first one when we were getting out of the van. There was a dude sitting nearby selling water. I think he was a homeless vet, but I’m not certain. He said he was a Christian and he knew the right answers to most of the questions, so Marc prayed with him and we were off. We got to one end of the loop then crossed over and walked back. As we did, there was a group of 3 guys (in jammies) wearing headphones and rapping along with the music that only they could hear. Marc was talking to one of them who used to go to church. He said that if he died that day, he would probably go to hell and the thought terrified him. Marc shared the gospel with him and what it means to live for Jesus.
Moving on from there, we kept walking for a bit, but our meter was up so we headed to the van. In a couple of hours, there was a home fellowship fairly nearby, so to kill time and try to find people, we went to a park nearby their house. There, Marc started talking to this kid named Jack who goes to church but had no idea how to get to heaven. After a bit of talking to him, his 2 friends came over. One was an atheist, the other went to church but also didn’t know how to get to heaven. That conversation was more about why we follow God and what He has done for us. Sometimes I wonder where the fault lies-we have all these people that we’ve met who go to church, but have no idea how to get into heaven, but that’s such a basic teaching. And if you don’t know, then what is the point of going? At that point, it’s selfish. I used to go to church because it made me feel good, it made me feel whole and cleansed, like I was right where I was supposed to be. I know God used that, but I was purely going for myself. It had nothing really to do with God. Sure, He was there, of course, and I enjoyed learning of Him, but I was spiritually blind. Just as James says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” And that was me, but I don’t think I was spiritually blind because God hadn’t opened my eyes-it was because I wanted to be. I chose sin and the “fun” that I was having over a fulfilling life of living for God. So perhaps nobody told me plainly what it meant to be a Christian or perhaps they did and  I didn’t want to hear it, all I know is that now it is our job to make sure that if people want to live in disobedience, it isn’t because nobody has told them of the saving grace of Jesus, that cleanses us from all of our sin.

After talking to them, we were a bit late for home fellowship, but we went and were welcomed warmly. We read and discussed out of Proverbs 1, and then it was off to bed.

The next day was, once again, a sweaty oven, and we, mistakenly, chose to spend the day outside. Awesomely, St. Louis has a free zoo, so we walked around that for a little while until we realized that it was too hot and nasty and not really a great place for sharing. As we walked back to the van, we came across a free art museum, so we mooched their A/C to cool off. That got old quickly, so we left.

Kaylah's giraffe

bald eagle!

baby elephant!!!

Sunday was, of course, church. Pastor Dave Fitzgerald taught from Judges chapter 4 and made some very interesting points. Two of them were as follows:

1-sin can’t just be put to the side-it must be put to death. How true of a statement-when we leave our options open, we tend to fall back into sin, but Romans 13 says to make NO provision for the flesh. We won’t fall into a sin if it isn’t an option.

2-God didn’t call us to fight a cultural war; He called us to fight a spiritual war. I couldn’t agree more. We are to be more concerned with Miley Cyrus’ salvation than her dance moves, President Obama’s salvation than his policies, our boss’ salvation than his treatment of us, and our friends’ salvation than whether or not we offend them. If these people are truly saved and walking with the Lord, then all of these issues will work themselves out because our God, who began a good work is faithful and just to complete it. So pray for those people who offend you and are bad role models, who you vehemently disagree with, who treat you badly, and who make you feel alienated. Pray for them, when they’re saved, they’ll remember your witness and thank you for it. Trust me.
 After church, we talked to a few people at the church. For some reason, the vast majority of people there (or at least that we talked to) were from Cali or had lived there at some point in their lives. From there we took off to the Festival of Nations, aka the International Food Festival! They had more than just food, but food is, of course, the most interesting part. From what I heard, this was the first year that admission was free, which is my favorite price, so off we went. It was PACKED. There were so many people there! We walked up and down scoping out what food we wanted to try. They had a lot of options that I didn’t expect from Iranian to Burmese to Afghan to German and even Romanian! Of course they had all of the usual international foods, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and Greek. Two foods that I was interested to try that they didn’t have were Irish and French. Oh well, so it goes. We surveyed every table carefully, then made it to the end and turned around to make our decision. While I pondered the most important question of the day, what to eat, Marc found a kid that he knew he needed to talk to. It was actually 2 kids, the first one that he talked to said that he was a Christian and called to be a pastor. The second guy, the one Marc was originally targeting, believed in God but other than that was very apathetic, with no concern for his relationship or walk. They talked for a bit, but Marc left it in the hands of the kid who was called to be a pastor.
We left them and decided on Burmese food. I got fried zucchini and fried rice noodles. The noodles looked much better than they tasted, the zucchini made up for it. It was so bomb! So we got our food then kept walking around and eventually stumbled upon the religion table. I didn’t intend to go and talk to them because I don’t like feeling like I’m picking on a religion representative, but there was a Christian Science table and because I’ve never talked to one of them, we (very innocently) went to ask them what they’re all about. Here’s what I found out before I got distracted: they’re very big on healing by faith rather than medicine, many of their members don’t believe in going to the doctor although that stance is not directly held by their church, and they don’t believe in heaven or hell. Just as they started getting into that conversation, my attention began to be torn between that and the table next to us-the Mormons. There were 3 people who had been at the Christian Science table before we got there who had now made their way one table to the left and were beginning to engage the Mormons. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know that I thoroughly enjoy talking to Mormons. That religion is actually what got me interested in apologetics, so naturally, my attention was torn and eventually I was lost from both conversations, so I just hung back and waited. In that time, one of the guys who was kind of the “ring leader” of the 3, if you will, stepped back from their conversation and asked me if I was religious. I told him I was a Christian and that began a conversation that I was pretty well over my head in. I had researched bits and pieces of it before, but not thoroughly or frequently enough to really be able to talk to him. Basically, he was an Egyptologist with an overall emphasis on Africa. When we asked him what his religion was, he said it wasn’t a religion but if he had to name it, he would call it the African Spiritual System. He had a lot to say about Jesus and different Egyptian “gods.” It was a lot like Zeitgeist-I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where he got a lot of his information. I tried to keep it basic and come back to questions like what was the point of his “evangelism”, so to speak, and what does it matter if Jesus was black, and other questions, but never got any very clear answers. It was borderline frustrating, but then Marc came over and took over the conversation. He did a much better job than I was doing and hopefully got through to him with a couple of points that he made. Either way, I’ve got some crazy research to do in the upcoming weeks.

people for days!

not the healthiest, but it was good :)

From there, we went to fill up our water bottles, but Marc wanted to go back to the table and talk to the Zoroastrians to ask what their religion was all about. There weren’t any actually there, but there was a table for a religious center. There slogan was something like, “One source, many paths.” At this house, people come in and are helped to find the right religion for them that will ultimately help them worship what they believe is the same god. This isn’t the first time we’ve come across this relativist philosophy, but what caught my eye was a few of the symbols-the cross, the Star of David and the star of Islam. I could see a Buddhist or Hindu or Native American spiritualist agreeing with the “One source, many paths” mantra, but these other 3 were monotheistic religions that promoted that their way was the only one. Even more intriguing, there was a Mormon representative at the table. So I asked the main guy who was a Hindu, how do they encompass these other religions who, very blatantly, say that they are the only way, that you must worship how they say? He replied that they can include monotheistic religions as long as they don’t stick hard and fast to being the only truth. So I turned to the Mormon woman and asked, “Is that your feeling also? Even though Mormons are monotheistic, you leave the position of being ‘the only truth?’” She went on to say that technically Christians aren’t monotheistic because they believe in Father/Son/Holy Spirit are all God. This is the first time I’ve ever heard an LDS member admit that they are polytheistic and once she established that, there was little left I could say to her. Once someone who claims to believe in the Bible says something contrary, you no longer have a base in common to go from. So our conversation didn’t last very long.
As we walked away and towards the van, I looked around and just saw desperation everywhere. Women dressed in very revealing clothing because they didn’t realize their worth is more than the sideways glances that they get from dirty men, teens trying to find who they were by trying to be someone else, and vendors just trying to make a quick buck. The rat race man, and everyone just believed whatever they were told. My heart was hurting for these people and for myself. I felt like David when he wrote, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” (Romans 3:10). There truly was none who sought the Lord. This was a lesson that I learned early on in our trip, that there was nobody who sought the Lord, nobody believed in God and those who did didn’t follow Him, but they chose what they wanted to believe and left out what they didn’t. I was very unsettled in my spirit as we walked out; I told Marc that I felt like I was the only one who believed the truth. Of course, that was foolish and I told him that also, but I just felt like everybody was so willingly lost and had no interest in serving the Lord or even knowing Him. So that was my Sunday!

On Monday morning, we woke up and went about our usual routine. As I sat to have my study, I read Romans 11:1-5, which says:

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

 I was in awe. Basically, Elijah felt like he was the only one who sought after God, but God showed him that there were many, that God hadn’t given up on us because of His great grace. What a great feeling, to have hope restored. Thanks be to God who gives gentle reminders instead of slaps in the face.

From there, we kind of farted around. I went to the gym and then we visited the science center but there weren’t too many people there so after walking around for a bit, we took off and headed downtown. St. Louis has a specialty that sounded right up my alley-toasted ravioli. Marc isn’t particularly a pasta fan, but if a region has a food they’re known for and either we can’t get it anywhere else or it’s just way better there, his heart is set on it. This is why we had to stop for cheese in Wisconsin (no complaints here), wings in Buffalo, cheesesteaks in Philly, pizza in NYC, and lobster in Maine. Needless to say, we stopped in for some toasted ravioli, but they only had meat ravioli. Marc thought it was fantastic. I don’t really like meat ravioli but I tried a small bite and from what I had it was pretty good. So if you are in St. Louie, you must have toasted ravioli. After dinner, we had time to kill before our plans that night, so we walked up and down the U City Loop. We ran into a couple of guys that Marc stopped and talked to. One of them was on his way to turn himself into the authorities and go to prison because he didn’t show up for his court date. Man, what a reason to do time, huh? Because you didn’t show up somewhere? If you think about it, pray for him, his name is Kenny.
Then came the fun part of the night-game night, at the game store. I didn’t really want to go, not because I knew I was going to be surrounded by nerds (not that I mind them at all), but because I don’t like feeling like I’m infiltrating someone else’s world, which is exactly how I felt going there. We played a game called Last Night on Earth, where our objective was to survive the zombie apocalypse until morning. It was essentially capture the flag but there were 4 items that had to be protected through 10 rounds. We fought the zombies through dice rolls and could battle them with the cards that we picked up. It was probably the closest to Dungeons and Dragons that I’ll ever come (except now that I’ve said that, I’m sure I’ll end up playing it), and it was actually very fun, much more fun than I expected. We got to share a little bit, but the nature of the game wasn’t very conducive to conversation that didn’t involve strategy and “What should I do?” questions, namely from me, so talking was kept to a minimum. All in all, I’m glad we went, but by the end, I was sleepy so it was off to bed.
Tuesday was our last day in St. Louis, we drove around a couple of different parks but it was so hot & humid that nobody was really out, so we headed indoor to the mall where we could mooch off of their A/C. It was a huge outlet mall, a lot like Ontario Mills, so we walked around there for a couple of hours. The only conversation that we were able to have there was with 2 workers at GameStop. I don’t know where everyone was, but it was terribly slow there, also. We were having terrible luck finding anybody, so I went to the gym and then we headed back to the house to do laundry.
That just about sums up our time in good ol’ St. Louie. We are so blessed to have met our gracious hosts, Jean and Joel Belding. We spent a lot of our last night there talking with them, they were super nice and great to be around. Pray that the Lord would bless them, they really were awesome people. 

Jean & Joel, our awesome hosts and new friends :)

Ohio to Missouri update/my illness/God is good!

Sooooo, we have finally left California. Three weeks ago, but who's counting?

We left Cali on August 2nd after a full 9 weeks of being home. Our time there was nice, we were able to reconnect with old friends, visit family, evangelize, and serve at the church. One of the best parts was spending so much time with our cousins and our little goddaughter who is getting so stinkin big. Good times. So in my last post, I updated you on why we were home for so long-my great grandmother passed away and we were waiting for her funeral before we could leave. Because of legal reasons, it kept getting pushed back and we didn't actually have the funeral until about a month afterwards. The week we were getting ready for the funeral, we were preparing to leave when we checked the mail and there was Marc's jury summons, for another 3 weeks after that. We were beginning to question whether or not God wanted us to finish the trip or if it was time to call it. Then we got our answer!

one of the many hikes we went on:

Danny Boy's epic jump

the boys epic tree battle

isn't she beautiful? I got to see this pretty girl a lot!

and hang out with the Ortega ladies!

and some awesome friends!

we served at VBS with El Capitan and Los Admirales

and my awesome uncle took us on a helicopter ride!

and lots of family time :)

Father's day with my dad and father in law

On Wednesday the 31st we got the call that we were needed in Ohio again and on Friday the 2nd, we were off! Remember our friends who were adopting from Ethiopia? After nearly 3 years (I think), they finally got assigned a child!! They had to go to meet him and go to Ethiopian court to gain custody of him, which left us to be nannies to their 3 other children for the ten days they were gone. Luckily, their kids are awesome and we love them! They're 9, 11, and 13, so old enough that I didn't want to pull out all of my hair.....just some of it. :) Anywho, check out their blog to read more about it! Also, they have to go back sometime in the next 3 months to have their embassy court date and pick him up and they still need travel funding for that! http://talesoftherogi.blogspot.com/2013/08/court.html Check them out! 

So they went to court and they came back and we left! It was about an 8 hour drive to get to St. Louis, Missouri where arrived just in time to eat some food and then get to church. I would say when it comes to meeting new people I am a bit of an introvert-I more like to blend in the background then have any attention on me. Well we walked in and there were about 15 people there. I told Marc, "looks like we're not going to just blend in". If you know Marc, you know he was definitely ok with that. So we sat down with not a whole lot of time before service, but the couple people around us started asking us questions, what brought us into town, where were we from, etc. When we said we were from Moreno Valley, the lady in front of us says, "Isn't that John Milhouse? He was my favorite teacher at Bible College." Small world! Many times people think because we go to a Calvary in California, it must be Raul's church, or Chuck's church, or someone very well known, but most people have never heard our pastor's name before, so to hear this woman in such a small crowd say that she knew him, was really cool. Especially cool because after study, her and her husband invited us over to stay the night at their house. That was such a relief  because the low for the night was supposed to be 73 and it was humid, then add 10 degrees to that because of the trapped air in the van. It wouldn't have made for a very pleasant night. It's one of those where you lay perfectly still on your side to minimize skin contact with anything and we're throwing down if your pinky touches mine because it's just too dang hot for that. Needless to say, Marc was very grateful for the offer. I was too, but Marc was giddy. 

So all that day, I had been having abdomen pain, just short little sharp, cramps about once every ten minutes that lasted for about 10 seconds. Throughout the day they got closer together and a little bit worse, until that night around 11 when I tried to go to sleep and my body was not having it. I was starting to get nauseous and that's never pleasant. Long story short, the pains were getting REALLY bad, I was in and out of the bathroom. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was about to deliver a baby or something. It was intense. Throughout the night, when my head wasn't over the toilet, we tried to figure out what was wrong with me. A friend suggested gallstones and when I looked up the symptoms, I had nearly every one. It suggested that when your gallbladder is attacking you (actual term used-and for good reason) that you can take aspirin which should ease your symptoms. Praise the Lord, it did and I was finally able to make it to bed around 2:30. I am beyond blessed that the Lord brought us to the church and these awesome people took us in. As much as last night sucked, it would have been 20 times worse to be stuck in the Walmart bathroom all night. God is so good to give us what we need!

So today was not so bad. I had little pains here and there, a knot in my stomach nearly all day and I'm terrified to eat anything and make whatever it is worse, but I'm doing good. We looked into clinics and will probably check one out tomorrow. Throughout the night last night, Marc wanted to take me to the hospital but if it was gallstones, I would probably need surgery and without insurance, that adds up quickly, but God is good and He will see us through. 

So that is our update! We should be here for about a week, as we usually shoot for, and then it will be off to South Dakota. Stay tuned!

Where have we been this past month?

I thought it might have been too long since I wrote a blog post and you lovely people might be wondering where the heck we are! Not only that, but what the heck has been going on! I'll do my best to be brief and detailed, if that is even possible, but here we go.

Last you heard from us, we were in Kentucky at Derby time. It was a lot of fun, but that blog has already been written. Nearing the end of the last post, I told you about an opportunity that had presented itself. We have some friends in Ohio who we had just visited between West Virginia and Kentucky who texted us and asked if we were interested in coming back for a couple of weeks so that Marc could work with a mutual friend doing contractor type work. Usually we take opportunities that are dropped in our lap so we prayed about it and didn't hear the Lord say no, so back to Ohio we went. Here is the last paragraph of my last post:
[This] still leaves us in the same boat as the beginning of this post-39 states down, 9 to go, which, hopefully, will put us home in July still. However, like I tell most people that I talk to, our original plan had us coming home in January 2013 and obviously that hasn't happened, so we'll see what God wants us to do between now and then.

That was a month ago. Am I in Missouri, state #41 yet, you ask? Nope. Two days shy of our two weeks in Ohio, we got a call from Marc's mom at 8 am. Considering the time difference, it was 5 am her time so instantly we knew that something was wrong. She told us that in the night, his Nana (great-grandma) had passed away. She was almost 92 and went in her sleep, which helped give us some peace of mind. She had lived a good, long life and we were happy that she went peacefully. At the same time, Marc immediately started trying to figure out a way to get home for her funeral. She was his oldest living relative on either side, and he really wanted to be there for her. Day after day passed by and we just didn't have the money to fly or drive home. I searched for hours looking for something cheap enough that would at least get Marc home for a week, but to no avail. A couple different people offered to help, but the tickets we found were at least $700 per person. We couldn't ask anyone to pay that, so we said thank you anyways and looked at it as a closed door. Marc was pretty bummed, until Wednesday, the night before the funeral, one of his family members back home said that he would fly us out. To get a cheaper price, we were going to book one way tickets each way and a different airport each time. We bought our tickets to fly from Columbus to Long Beach, then once we got to Cali, we were going to buy our tickets to go back, from LAX to Dayton. Four different airports, but it was the cheapest option. And we were off!
We landed at 11:45am on May 23rd and the funeral started at 2:00. Marc's uncle (on the other side of the family) was kind enough to pick us up from the airport, take us to lunch, then back to his house to be picked up by the parents on their way to the funeral. I was so happy that Marc was able to be there with his family, knowing how much it meant to him.
Later that day at the reception, I got a call from my dad. He told me that my great-grandma wasn't doing good and that they didn't think she would make it through the night. Geez man. We only had one way tickets and hadn't bought our return flight yet so we decided that we would push it back and stay what we assumed would be an extra week for her funeral. At 89 years old, my grandma had always been a fighter. I honestly thought she'd live to be one of those people who was 110 by the time they died because there was never anything wrong with her. She was always so great and seemingly healthy. 
Life at home went on normally, but it was weird to be back. Marc and I always talk about how things are going to be when we get back and what life will be like, so now that we're home, but not permanently, it's very strange. We feel like we're in limbo-we're not making any progress in the trip, but we're also not beginning our life. The more time that has gone by, the easier it has gotten, but still, it's weird. 
Time passed with no news. My grandma had said that she wanted to die at home rather than in a hospital, so for the first few days nothing happened. Later, some news came to light that required that my grandma to be taken to the hospital. I won't get into all of the details, but we are currently in the process of getting my grandma's caretaker charged with abuse and neglect. Please, if you can, keep that in prayer. I went to the hospital on Thursday to see my Grandma and to make sure she heard the gospel. She was unconscious so she couldn't respond to me, but the doctor said that she could most likely hear me. I talked to her for a little bit then sat there for about an hour. One of my very best friends, Heidi, was kind enough to go and sit with me. It helped to have her there.
That weekend, with still no news, I went up to the Ladies Retreat with my church. On Saturday evening, I received the call-she had passed. All I can do is hope and pray that she received what I said to her just a few days before. With my grandma gone, my dad and uncle began making arrangements. Due to circumstances with her caregiver, they weren't able to solidify any plans until some court proceedings had passed. Finally, they were able to make arrangements and planned on hopefully having it on Friday the 7th or Monday the 10th. Because we had all seen her before she passed, they weren't going to do a viewing or a service, just a burial with a quick 5 minute service. My dad asked me if I could get a pastor to just say a quick 5 minute message before they buried her. Because it was only going to be more of a "send off" then a service and it was far away, I offered for Marc or I to just say a couple of words. I mean, we could talk for five minutes, that's no big deal right? He accepted, and it was a plan. Until it wasn't. The next day after another court hearing and another meeting with the funeral home, the funeral was pushed back yet again. I can't specifically say when it is, but by the time we leave, we'll have been here for almost a month. And what's more, now we are actually having a service...that I am giving. Holy moley am I nervous already. I have been to maybe 5 funerals in my life and now I have to perform one!? In front of my family?! Please pray for me because I know there are some things that the Lord wants me to say that my family probably won't receive, but He lines things up the way He does for a reason, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

And that is the update of where we are (California) and why we have been here for so long. 

One more thing-the guy that Marc was working for in Ohio wants to buy Marc's Blazer, so we're driving it out there after the funeral. That is definitely a prayer request! Thanks!

Kentucky! Just in time for Derby!

Kentucky!
In the beginning of the trip, Marc and I would always look at each other and say, "Wyoming. What the heck are we doing in Wyoming?!" Or, of course, whatever state we're in, and it would be funny because we were places where we never thought we'd be. Because really, what business do I have in places like Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska. We haven't really said that in a long time because the novelty of being in so many new places all of the time has kind of worn of. We definitely said it when we got to Kentucky. What the heck are we doing in Kentucky!
So, I suppose you'd like to know. The very first thing we did was go to church! We got there on a Wednesday evening right around 7:15. We had a sandwich & then pulled into the church parking lot just in time for service. It was a smaller service, probably 8-10 people, including us. It was a nice time, we were able to discuss a few verses in 1 John and get to know a couple people there. Turns out (I would say by chance but we all know that that isn't true) that we were there for the Kentucky Derby that following Saturday! The people at church gave us the heads up on things going on around town and we headed out for the evening.
Thursday morning we headed downtown! We couldn't find any free parking (expected) but we did find a lot that wasn't terribly far away for only $5 all day. We parked, packed some food, and headed out towards the river. We first came across 2 ladies sitting on a bench looking at a map. We got to talking with them and got to share about our trip which inevitably led to the gospel, but we also had a great conversation with them before that about a large variety of topics from school to health to friends/family. It was sort of refreshing.
As we walked on, we met a lady who, after asking, said she was born again. Then we continued on to 2 guys sitting on a set of steps. Marc got to ask them a little bit, but their lunch break was soon over so they had to leave.
Moving on, we walked through a nice little park and found a Marc target, a guy sitting alone on a bench. They got to talking-the guy, Randy, was in a rehab program and in the process of getting his life together. He seemed to be a believer, he got all of the questions right but was a little bit unsure of them. Marc encouraged him a little bit and we were off.
There was a fair going on as part of "Derby Week", which is actually the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. We were going to walk around inside, but it was $5 to get in and it looked mostly like concessions, so we passed and kept walking. There were a couple other conversations that we had that day, but they were short and not really of note. As we walked along, we eventually got to the main street and remembered, "oh yeah! There's a parade today!" We stopped and watched that and were there for a couple of hours. There were stands everywhere along the sidewalks, but all of them had signs that it was reserved except for one! So we sat and waited for the parade to begin. We got to talking to the guys next to us, but paused while they got up to go get a burger. By this time, the stands were pretty full. There was a family behind us that had 4 or 5 kids and they were all sitting there, eating lunch & waiting for the parade to start. An older lady came over (maybe around 50 or so) and kind of announced to the people in the bleachers, "Hi y'all, I just wanted to let you know that this area is reserved for people with tickets so if you have them, you're welcome to stay but if not, you should probably find somewhere else because they'll be checking soon." Maybe not word for word, but something of that nature. All of a sudden, the dad of the family behind me started cursing at her! Then the mom joined in! Right in front of their children who were all younger than 8 probably. The woman was shocked, and tried to defend herself, but the cursing just got louder and worse. It was appalling! I almost thought that the wife was going to swing on the woman, but she didn't. They walked away and Marc reminded me of the Proverb that says something like, "It's better not to answer a fool in his folly." Not that the woman was wrong, but if she would have just not responded the first time, the situation never would have escalated. Perhaps the couple missed that session of parenting class-don't cuss people out in front of your children, especially ones who are polite.
So we found another spot to watch the parade (without all of the shenanigans of course). It was LOOOONNNNG! It wasn't the best parade I've been to, but it definitely wasn't the worst either! It had the typical marching bands, dance teams, shriners lol, a few giant balloons. It was funny to us that they make such a big deal about Derby that they even have a giant parade for it. Especially because all around the country, most people take no note of it. It goes by and that's it. Some people watch it but most don't even realize it's Derby Day, let alone "week", yet their whole year is in anticipation of it.
That evening we walked around a neighborhood that a few different people had told us about called the Highlands. It was getting late by the time that we got there so we didn't stay too long. We walked a few blocks when I was pooped out from the long day, so that wrapped up Thursday.
Friday was a long day! A loooooooooong day! In the evening, two of our awesome friends back home were getting married and we were going to end up at Starbucks, mooching off of their wifi, not to mention the blogging, research, and other things I had to do on the computer. So we wanted to make sure that we at least had sometime to walk around and not seclude ourselves. We went back to Highlands, which seemed to be a good area for people. Once we got there we kind of realized that it was more of a "nightlife" spot, but there were scattered shops so we walked around anyways, seeing what we'd come across. And man oh man, did we walk! For hours. I was exhausted by the time we were done! I think we walked at least three miles, which maybe is an embarrassing amount of time to be exhausted after, but oh well. We were. Then it was off to Starbucks for some R&R and business. I should call it my office from now on. Not a terrible idea.
So I blogged West Virginia, did some research of my hippie ways and then we were blessed to be able to watch Mike & Sherrie's wedding. It was awesome! Afterwards, our good friend Ralph went around rounding up all of our friends who were there so they could wave to us in the webcam. What a nice guy! It was sweet to be able to see everyone, too.
Saturday was Derby Day! We got up in the morning and headed out to Derby. We weren't planning on going in-as much as we would have liked to, it was $50 for General Admission, which got you into the infield and a view of the screens. No thanks. Not to mention the fact that it was raining. So we busted out the umbrella and walked over there anyways. We had been (mis)informed that at the gates they had TV's where you could watch from. The first gate didn't, so we kept walking around. We walked the entire perimeter and never found the supposed TVs. The circumstances weren't the best for talking to people either. It was, like I said, raining and everyone was on their way in so we had almost no opportunity. One thing that was kind of good and yet not really, was the amount of street preachers that were out. A couple of them were preaching God's love and His message without being crazy or nasty about it, but there was, like always, the crazy people who stood on the corner telling people as they walked by that they were going to hell. Whether or not that is true is not up for him or anyone else to say, especially because they don't know the person. Not to mention, that isn't the message that God has called us to bring to people anyways. If people aren't presented with God's love and redemption, then the messenger is doing something wrong. God is not a God of hate-He isn't excited about telling people that they're going to hell. It breaks His heart and it should break ours, but these people don't weep over their message, which is the wrong one anyways.
Later we met up with some friends and were telling them about these guys and he put it very well-they aren't concerned with showing the love of God or making disciples, rather, they seek to get brownie points for speaking God's word. A very accurate description if you ask me.
Moving onto more exciting news! Those friends that we met up with were our great and awesome friends from Ohio! They were just in Nashville and to get back home, they had to drive through Louisville. So even though we had just seen them, they still went a little out of their way and stopped to have lunch with us! I love these people! There are just a handful of people that we've met on this trip who we'll probably keep in touch with for eternity, and they're definitely one of them. I hope when we get our mansions in heaven, that ours will be on the same street as theirs, or however that works. I would do another shameless plug about helping to support their international adoption, but I just did one in the last blog so if you are interested in checking it out, you can either read my last post (http://bonnieortega.blogspot.com/2013/05/west-virginia-38-aka-10-left.html) or check out their blog (http://talesoftherogi.blogspot.com/).
Needless to say, we had a great time at lunch but, like all good things, our time came to an end. They had to get home, something about having kids, and we got on our way as well. It was still drizzly and, of course, Derby Day, so we didn't expect much opportunity anywhere. Downtown was a ghost town, so we retreated inside to the mall and out of the rain. Aaaaaand the mall was lame. It was a decent size and busier than we expected, but we didn't have much opportunity. Although, we circled the food court and got 4 samples. Score! We looked for a Hallmark (I guess some holiday for moms is coming up and we thought, "what the heck, why not") but strangely enough, there wasn't one in the mall. When we gps'd it, we found that there was another mall about a block and a half away, so we went to that one. I should've taken pictures inside of it, because the 2nd floor was under construction and the whole place was a little bit eerie because of it. Long story not so short, we found Hallmark, got cards, and went somewhere to write them. Not a very exciting finish to our day, but thus is the life sometimes.
Sunday morning, of course, was church so we headed back to Calvary Chapel Louisville. After a great message, we hung out for some surprisingly delicious tacos. I only say surprisingly because I'm not a huge fan of beef, but they were good! We got to talk to a few people, one of them being a couple that we had met on Wednesday night. After a little while, they invited us to stay at their house for the duration of our stay in Louisville, so we did! We headed to their house right after lunch and hung out with them. It was awesome getting to know them-they're from Kosovo so we asked them a bunch of culturally relevant questions. It's always intriguing to learn about a new place. And their 10 month old baby, Alba, was so cute! You know me, I love babies! That evening for dinner, they took us to a Mediterranean restaurant. I don't think I've ever had Mediterranean food before, but it was SO good! And the portions were gigantic!
Besides the great company and delicious food, the best part about staying with them, was that they lived in an apartment, which means that they had a gym! I went everyday that we were there for a total of 3. I only mention that to say how awesome God is. Lately, we've been trying to eat healthier to not be so sluggish, and I pray all the time (well, sometimes) that God would make a way if it's possible for me to get a gym pass. I'm not too insistent upon it because I know He already provides for us like crazy and I don't want to be selfish and ask for something that is more a greed than a need, but He says to ask, so I do! Worst He can say is no, right? ;) So I was happy to be able to work out again, although a little unhappy about how out of shape I've become. I guess almost a year and a half out of the gym will do that to you.
On Sunday, we planned to leave on Monday, but at the time we were both feeling like we hadn't really been pursuing the Lord like we should have been and it would have been nice to have some time set aside. That and Marc didn't see it fitting to move onto the next place, hoping the Lord would go before us, when he wasn't really as close as he should have been. All that to say, we pushed back leaving another day so that we had more time (and a place) to sit and relax with the Lord and really seek Him. And it was a great day!
That night we received a text message from our oh so awesome friends in Ohio (yes the ones I already talked about) asking us if we wanted to come back for a couple of weeks so Marc could pick up some work with a mutual friend who needed help. It seemed like a win-win and I was strangely ok with putting the trip on hold while we backtracked just a tad. We told them we would let them know in the morning and then we prayed about it. Our hosts, (Lule & Niti) prayed for us as well. The more time went on, the more it seemed like we were going. And we did! With more prayer and reading on Tuesday morning, we never heard God say no, so we packed up and headed back to Columbus.
Which still leaves us in the same boat as the beginning of this post-39 states down, 9 to go, which, hopefully, will put us home in July still. However, like I tell most people that I talk to, our original plan had us coming home in January 2013 and obviously that hasn't happened, so we'll see what God wants us to do between now and then.

the state sign was on a bridge,

so we settled for the welcome center state sign

I think that's Indiana on the other side of the river. 

tiiiiiight

loving the hula hoop! I actually laughed out loud at this.

minion blimp!

the Derby Day parade, also known

as the Pegasus Parade

jockey!

I don't know who these people are, but I liked their 

funky hats. I think they're the Knights of Columbus, which 

would make a lot of sense. 

Is that even street legal?!

man, you shoulda seen it. He's been

staring at it forever!

I've seen him lift more than that! He 

must not want to show off. ;)

Apparently I grew a beard.....

We should be wedding photographers.

the most famous racetrack in America! 

our awesome Ohio-ans. :)

best chicken kabob I've ever had.

OMG and the rice! Delicious! 

I must know the secret!

That's a teacup. Marc was in love with this tea!

Our great and wonderful hosts and friends, 

Lule & Niti