balloon animals, sunburns, and JESUS!!!

so i'm SOO excited right now, i may have trouble putting my thoughts into words (just warning you). today has been very busy. we started the day a little earlier than normal in order to have plenty of time to get to the park and get set up. so we headed out with a cooler full of water bottles, another cooler full of freezies, and a bag full of goodies (balloons for animal balloons, face paint, frisbees, balls, and probably some things i'm forgetting to mention). needless to say, we were very excited and pumped about the day!! this is going to be a long blog, by the way.

we got to the park a little before 2, and as we were walking up from the bus, a ton of kids come running up to us yelling "FREEZIES!!!" i feel like we spread the message pretty well yesterday about coming back today. carson started handing out freezies while alyssa and i prepared ourselves for an afternoon full of balloon animals. alyssa literally made balloon animals for over 3 hours. i also made them for the majority of the time, taking a little break to play soccer with some of the kids. nishika spent most of the afternoon painting faces, and she did an excellent job if i say so myself!! it was wonderful! we talked to a few of the parents about why we were there, and many of them asked if we would come back. we plan to do a block party again next thursday. i wish i had gotten more of a chance to hang out with the kids and get to know them, but i feel like we've gotten our feet wet, and they trust us now, so if we come back any other times they would probably be cool with playing with us or hanging out. and the parents know they can trust us now as well. so that was awesome. we also got sunburnt, which is very important for the rest of the story (keep reading to find out why!!).

after we finally pulled ourselves away from making balloon animals, we rode the bus to square one to grab a quick dinner before bible study. then we headed over to UTM, only to find out that kevin had not gotten our email about changing bible study to tonight instead of tomorrow. so, after debating a little on whether or not to just leave, we decided to go ahead and have a bible study. we went inside to the "cafeteria area" and sat down. a few minutes later, kevin called aubrey, and he was at UTM and had just gotten out of class. so he came and joined us!! so that was very exciting!! so we talked for a few hours, had some really deep conversations about sin and the holiness of God, it was great.

when we were done, we headed back to south commons (our midway point from UTM and sheridan). carson and alyssa headed to walmart to get some aloe, because we all got sunburnt, while i waited with the coolers and goody bag at the bus stop. i waved as our bus came and went. but it was all good, cause another bus would come in about 30 minutes. so..alyssa and carson got back, and we waited for the next bus. around 10:55 pm, the bus shows up, and we get on. (i know you are getting sooo excited to hear the rest of this story! believe me, this is the most exciting part). so on the bus, the lights are blue, and we were pretty excited about this. alyssa asked the bus driver why the lights were blue, and he said something about it being a "stoner bus." we just kinda laughed, and this guy that was sitting across from us said something to the effect of "these people aren't stoners, they are charity workers." and we were like, how did you know!? (despite the fact we were wearing matching shirts, and carrying coolers and goodies).

so this guy started asking us what our "charity" was, and we explained to him that we were working with a church, came from the states, and just wanted to share Jesus's love with everyone. he began talking about how he believed all religions lead to the same place, and the conversation just took off from there!! we shared our faith, and basically the plan of salvation. and the coolest thing was how we could see the Holy Spirit working in his heart, convicting him. no kidding! it was amazing. and then there was a dude in the back that was definitely listening in, and the bus driver even turned off the air conditioning so he could hear better. the guy's name is peter, and i'm praying that we will encounter him more and more! and who knows if we will, or what will ever happen to him, but it was sooo encouraging to really see God work, right in from of our eyes!

looking back, we realized that had we not gotten sunburnt today, the conversation on the bus might have never happened. because alyssa and carson wouldn't have needed to go to walmart, and we wouldn't have missed the first bus, and the bus wouldn't have had blue lights, and the guy wouldn't have been on the bus and asked what our charity was. isn't God just amazing?! its so crazy to see how He works things out. but i'm SO glad He chooses to use me!! wow.

words cannot describe how excited i am right now. sometimes its nice to be reminded of who God is, and that He wants to use me. so awesome. be praying for peter. for his salvation and understanding of what we shared with him. and even for the bus driver and the guy in the back. they all got a big dose of Jesus tonight!

so tomorrow we are headed to canada's wonderland for a day full of roller coasters and adventures, and i am thoroughly pumped about it! i hope tonight's blog is an encouragement for you. thanks, as always, for your prayers. love you guys!