Day 18

We all slept in today. There is no where that we have to be today and we are looking forward to just being able to relax and maybe have so fun. After our quiet times, we headed out to breakfast at U.S. Egg. While we ate we talked about some things that we could together. Ryan has spent a lot of time here and I used to live here so we knew that we could think of something. I think Ryan and I were talking about cars or something when he remembered.....F1 indoor kart racing. It is an indoor go kart track here in Phoenix. The guys seemed to be the most excited about the idea, but we all said that it sounded like ti would be fun to do. After we ate we slowly made our way to the F1 location, and after making 2 pit stops and getting lost....I mean turned around 1, we arrived. There are 2 tracks inside of this very large building along with video games, pool tables, a Pit Crew challenge, and a small restaurant. We took a look around at the facility and all the different things that they had to offer and then talked about who wanted to race. Ryan, Dave, Danley, Jackie and myself(Josh) would be racing against each other. We signed up, headed to our driver briefing and got suited up. After stopping and picking out a helmet we were ready to go, so we lined up and waited for our names to be called. As they called us, we filled out to our karts and got strapped in and ready to race. We were off, the Kart travel down the track at a top speed of 45 mph and there are many turns to navigate along the course. My favorite part though was when Ryan bumped me into the wall as he was passing me. It was a lot of fun, and it didn't rally matter who won.........but just for the record, in our group Ryan was the winner. After the race we got back in the car and headed back to where we are staying. Chad offered to buy us dinner, and he ordered pizza for all of us. After dinner Dave and myself drove the girls over to a hotel room and helped them get their bags up to their room. Tomorrow we will be teaching one of our last two seminars. We are hoping that we have the chance to teach this seminar when we get back home as well.

Day 17

Sometimes we get so focused on our schedule and on where we need to be next and just getting out of the town we are in to get to the next one that we may miss what God has for us. Well today started out as one of those days. We were all set to get out of this small little town and down to Phoenix, when we began to run into problems. First we were going to just right on the freeway and get gas a little further down the road when we missed the freeway on ramp. So we decided to head to one of the gas stations still in town, once there we noticed that the left rear tire on the Trailblazer was low on air, upon further inspection there was a nail in the tire. So we headed over to a tire shop just across the street, got our tire fixed and headed out again. But now we thought that we should check the air in all the tires on both vehicles. When we were done we circled up, joined hand and I began to pray, thanking the Lord for our time here in Holbrook and asking His blessing on the day that we will do the work that He puts before us.....when it happened.........I could feel that someone had walked up to us, then from behind Ryan came this voice "What are you guys doing?" Standing there was a man and from the smell he had been drinking for a little while. I looked at him and said, "we are praying......would you like to join us?" We made a spot for him in the circle and he took my hand and Dave's hand. I prayed for our new friend and for the rest of the day and ended the prayer. Ryan turned to the man and asked him how everything was going. And he started to tell his story, as he spoke with us he said that he needed to confess so things but he didn't want to do it in front of all these people, he said this 2 more times and we asked if would like to talk to just the guys. He said that he did and when the girls had left the circle he opened his heart up to the three of us. His name is Benny and he has been racked with guilt over sins that he thinks are unforgivable. We started to tell him that Jesus Christ came and paid the penalty for ALL sins 2000 years ago on the cross and if you come to Him, He forgives you of ALL your sins. We spoke with Benny for a little while longer, gave him a bible and encouraged him to stop drinking and to read the bible. Benny thanked us for the time we spent with him and for the bible. We then all came back together and prayed for our new friend. With that we were on our way once again, but always looking out for those chances when God has someone who He wants to reach out to. As we drove Ryan and I talked about how God will go to great lengths to have us stop to minister to just one person. His love for everyone of us is so great that there is nothing more important than the soul of someone in pain and Benny was in pain and crying out to God today. Thank you Lord for allowing us to bring Jesus to Benny today. Our drive today was only 3 hours and we were in Phoenix. Tomorrow will be our last free day of the trip as it is coming to an end soon, with only 2 more teachings to go. Tonight we are going to an event called Element, where Chad will be speaking on what the Lord has been doing through him over the last year. Then we will have a chance to spend so time with Chad as we will be staying with a friend of his.

Day 16

Today has a strange feel to it, there is something different here, and we can't put our finger on it. There were somethings that we needed to get done today, laundry, some shopping and the like before we head over to the church. The Calvary there is smaller than the one we has just been to in Santa Fe but we were looking forward to teaching tonight. We arrived at had the chance to meet pastor Dean, he told us that we could expect around 20 people tonight. I think we all could feel that tonight was going to be different from the other time we had taught, and it was. Right from the start, things just were not working out the way they should have, we first started to have some technical difficulties, we couldn't play the promo DVD on their DVD player, then we couldn't get our laptop to plug into their projector. Finally we used our projector with our laptop, but when we played the promo DVD.........no sound. Then as Ryan and then Dave, and myself went up to speak, we all struggled with our words and remembering what to say. But we never freaked out or got worried, we all just waited for the Lord to help us, and He did. We never had to worry about what we were going to say, He had other plans for what was said, and over all it was very different from any other presentation we had done to this point, all of them have been slightly different, but this was very different. We answered a lot of question at the end and spent a lot of time after talking to many of those in attendance. We then spoke with pastor Dean for a little while longer and said our goodbyes. We were all very hungry so we headed over to Denny's by our hotel for a bite to eat. Jenn told us of a meteor shower that was going to be going on tonight, so we asked our waiter where would be a good spot to go and watch it that would be away from all the light. He told us of a road that leads out of town where there are no lights and we should have a good view of the sky from there. We headed out to the spot he had told us about and sat and watched for an hour or so. We did get to see a few of the "shooting stars" or meteors before we started to get too cold and too tired. We headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep, tomorrow we are headed to Phoenix Az. for the last stop on our tour. Ryan's friend Chad is going to be there while we are there and we are all looking forward to seeing him again. He was in Poland at the same time that we were back in May and June of this year, and now he is in Phoenix at the same time...........hmmmm.

Day 15

This morning we slept in a little because we had just a 5 hour ride, once again, into Holbrook Arizona. But we wouldn't be teaching until tomorrow so there was no real rush to get there we were able to take our time. We checked out, and drove into downtown Santa Fe. It is such a nice old city, there were no really tall buildings. All the building looked like they had been there for hundreds of years, even newer construction was done to look like the older buildings. We spent some time driving around there and then stopped at a small cafe for some breakfast/lunch, then we were on our way, saying goodbye to New Mexico and getting ready to say hello to Arizona. The drive there was like any of the others, a lot of great scenery and a lot of vast open space. we have taken A LOT of great pictures, with so many of us having cameras, there are so many great moments that have been captured! We arrived in Holbrook with no problems and found a hotel right off the freeway, the Lord has directed us to all of the hotels that we have stayed in so far and each has been a blessing in it's own way. From great deals and free internet connections to free breakfast in the mornings, to the greatest, that is, opportunities to bring Jesus in to stay for a night or two. And this one was no exception, we really are not sure why we are here in this tiny little town just off the freeway, but we know that God wants to do something amazing here. We will be teaching tomorrow night at the Calvary here in town and we are all wondering what to expect, and we are seeking the Lord in prayer.

Day 14

This morning we are getting a very early start to get on the road on our way to Santa Fe New Mexico. It will be a 5 hour drive and we will be teaching there tonight, so we want to get there early to get settled in. The drive down was nice, once again we have clear skies, well mostly as we were leaving it is starting to snow, just barely. But not enough to even have us turn on the wipers. We pulled into Santa Fe early in the afternoon, found the church and got a hold of our contact. We were then able to find a hotel very close by, right around the corner in fact. After checking in we got a little bit of rest before heading over to the church. The church was very nice inside, we taught in the main sanctuary, we were able to use the sound system which meant that we would be recorded for the first time. We spoke with the pastor, Paul Skozzafava about what size of a crowd we would be having. He wasn't to sure of the size, but he was hopeful that we would get a good size. By the time we ready to get started there were 37 who had showed up. The sanctuary was large, defiantly the largest that we had been in to this point, and to be honest it was a little intimidating for some of us, which helped us to lean on the Lord and seek Him for the strength and the boldness. The Lord meet us there and spoke through each one of us, it fired us up and the crowd had quite a bit of involvement at this one. There were a lot of questions hat were asked of us and we were able to share them some of the things that were taught to us at HSE(Horizon School of Evangelism). After we ended in prayer we spoke with quite a few of those in attendance, cleaned everything up and headed out to dinner with the pastor and his assistant pastor. Pastor Paul shared with us some of the things that that church has gone through over the last few years and about how the Lord had put this area on his heart. Previous to Santa Fe, Paul was with Calvary Chapel Albuquerque. But after some things happened with the former pastor up in Santa Fe, the Lord called Paul up there. Since that time he has faced quite a bit of attack from the enemy, to the point that he has some pretty serious physical problems now. but it has only caused him to seek the Lord that much more. This trip has introduced all of us to some of the most amazing and humble men of God, serving in areas where so much help is needed, and they all have such confidence that the Lord will bring them all that they need. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel room. What a wonderful night the Lord has blessed us with once again. There has been so much that He has been teaching me along this route, it has truly changed my life, I thank God for allowing me to come on this trip.

Day 13

This morning is Sunday and Lonnie asked us to come to Legacy for service and we are setting up our promo table and Lonnie is giving us 5 minutes to speak to the congregation about the school and about our road trip. After service we talked to several people from the church, said our goodbyes and got on the road as we needed to be in Colorado Springs that afternoon to teach at Calvary Chapel Rocky Mountain. It is just a short drive down to the Springs so we had plenty of time to get down there and check into our hotel before making our way over to the church. We are teaching a Evangelism class that meets on Sunday nights. This will be their last class of an 8 week program. We had just an hour tonight so we did a few things differently tonight. We shared more of our testimonies and our experiences in Evangelism. After the class we spoke with quite a few people there at the church about the school, they had a lot of questions for us and they wanted to hear about our different mission trips that we have gone on. Our contact there was Sean Rafferty, and when we were all down he took us out to dinner where he wanted to know more about each one of us and to hear what God has been speaking to us about on this trip. Sean spoke wisdom into our lives, it was great to speak to someone who has had so much experience in the ministry. It was a great time spent with Sean, it was very encouraging for so many of us.

Day 12

Each place we have been has very different and Denver is no different. Today is the first free day that we have had so for along the way and it just seems fitting that we should spend it here in Denver. After we all had our quiet time with the Lord this morning we made our way down to downtown Denver our first goal of the day was to grab a bit to eat, then go from there. We headed over to the 16th street mall and got lunch just in one of the food courts. We then decided that we would split up until dinner time later that day. The ladies were headed off to do some thrift store shopping and the guys would stay downtown and explore the urban Denver. Ryan, Dave and myself headed out to the side walks of the 16th street mall and walked in the direction of the river font park. The 16th street mall reminded me of Santa Monica, how there were shops on either side of the street and the street was closed to regular traffic. There were free buses that travel back and forth along the street. We ended up at river font park just before sunset and walked around the dog park there, everyone here in the city seems to have a dog. As the sun was beginning to go down and the temperature was quickly following after it, we made our way back over to the 16th street mall area. We took the free bus half way up the mall and talked to a few people on the bus. After getting off the bus we made our way to the other end of the mall. Near the end I stopped and spoke with a homeless man who went by the name of, "Charlie Brown". Charlie has spent the last 29 years on the streets of Denver and his face and body looked very weathered from all those years. He knew who Jesus is and what He has to offer, but Charlie didn't want to hear what I had to say about it. I prayed for him and caught back up with the guys. It was now dark and we were getting hungry, so we headed to meet up with the girls for dinner. We had dinner at "Sweet Tomatoes", which is the same as "Soup Plantation".