Quote of the day 2:08 PM

"I'm only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something, and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do that something I can do." - Helen Keller

brrlatte and new friends 12:55 AM

It’s hard to believe this trip has only been about a week and a half. I feel like I’ve been through so much mentally, physically and spiritually. One of our biggest challenges has been finding WiFi for us to all get hooked up to for updates, as you may have noticed. It’s okay though, now you just have more to read about :)

As you heard Knoxville was great. The people were awesome, the different things we were able to be apart of were great. It felt weird to move along so suddenly. But we did, we scooted on over to Nashville. Ginger has been telling me how absolutely amazing Nashville is for the past two years. I usually would nod and say, “yesyes Ginger we’ll have to go sometime” without much thought. But now. Now I understand :)

Like Jason’s earlier post said our first day we found a church that was doing flood relief work for Tent City. For those who may not know Nashville went through a serious flood a few weeks ago. A lot of houses and businesses were damaged, valuables ruined, and some lives lost. Tent City was a piece of land filled with tents housing much of the homeless in the city. The flood destroyed it and has left a lot of people misplaced. So this church was passing out tents to anyone that needed them. We worked with some great people and though the day didn’t pan out quite the way we had thought it would we have a lot of fun and were glad to have been there.

In between all the tent shenanigans we met this really cool missionary Joseph. He’s traveled all around the world and taught classes for YWAM ( Youth With A Mission - http://www.ywam.org/ ). He said two sentences that are awesome! But grrrr Ginger and Jason don’t remember them but Stan wrote them down. So he’ll post them later. But our conversation with him was just really encouraging. He talked about stirring each other up. How people are like a pot of soup. You stir a pot of soup because all the good stuff is at the bottom. It’s important to encourage people because you want to stir up all the good things in them. Let them know what they’re good at. Tell them what they do well so they can keep on keeping on. ‘Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near’ from Hebrews ten was what Joseph referenced. I want to be better at stirring people up.

That Tuesday is Nashville was a very encouraging day. While trying to figure out dinner plans Ginger pointed out a restaurant her sister recommended called Silly Goose. Though the not super cheap menu was a bit intimidating and we didn’t look quite as trendy as the other guests we decided to go in. In the end I think it was the perfect leading :) We ended up meeting some of the trendy guests and were invited to meet up with them later. I never would have guessed you could make good friends in half a day… but I know now it’s possible :) All the guys we met were super welcoming. They let us into their home and fed us and shared stories with us. It was a really great night that concluded beautifully with some heart to heart to heart and prayer. I look forward to my next trip to Nashville.

The whole trip has made me realize how much fun it is talking to the people around you. And how awkward it can be :P But a lot of great things have come from just talking to someone random. Though Love Each One does make it a little easier to talk to people. The business card makes us look official and our cause gives us something to talk about. I think we’re all considering carrying around the business cards for the rest of our lives just to make it easier to talk to random people. But I’d like to be able to just break past that weird awkward wall that seems to be the social norm. To just be able to talk someone because I want to talk with them.

Currently we're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, enjoying good food and a few new friends. I love meeting people and making friends :) It seems like at every stop we end up saying aww lets stay here so we can hang out with our new friends. But it's okay, having friends all over the country is cool. I hope to be able to travel around the country at a later date and be able to call up these new friends and get to know them better.

The trip has been great. It’s been a challenge. Overall it’s been a lot of learning and thinking. I’ve enjoyed ever minute of it and look forward to everything that’s in store for us.

I thank the Lord that we are always in the right place at the right time and talk to the right people.

Hooray for adventures :)

and a shout out to Jordan! we miss ya! just keep on loving where you are anddd maybe we'll see you in a few weeks :D ... ?