Beards and Oklahoma

Gday, Mates!

Well today officially marked the first day of being on the open road! Started out the morning with a brief hug with the cousin, packing up, and moving out! Weird feelings of sadness this morning, not sure why. Possibly caused from going farther and farther away from my family and loved ones. We started towards our first destination, which was a lady that was a journeyman for Aunt Cynthia while she was in Bolivia. To explain, (and hopefully get this right) A Journeyman is a short term missionary that goes to a place, lives with long term missionaries for 2 years, and helps in whatever special way or gift they can. I was a little unsure because I had never met this lady and didn't want things to be awkward. Everything turned out fine! First thing her husband said to me was "Nice Beard! You look like a rocker". I knew everything was going to be fine from there. Come to find out that he is the pastor of a small church in that town. He began to tell me about all the different things his church is involved in. One thing he told me was that there was a project that he was most proud of, simply because he had no involvement in it! Basically he told me that it was a sunday school that put together this clothes drive and ended up renting a house to store all the clothes because there was so much there!

This was a very encouraging conversation. After only an hour we were back on the road heading towards Oklahoma City. I had a very nice conversation with my Aunt while on our way. I told her about how much has happened in my life since last year. I also discussed my biggest problem and and struggle. I constantly live in fear. If any of you don't know, I can sometimes be overly cautious. I hate the fact that fear sometimes doesn't allow me to do things that I want to do. I explained that I am tired of living like this, it is miserable! To that she said " It must run in the family". She told me about how she used to be that way and still fights with stuff like that today. It was very comforting to know that I am not alone in battling fear and anxiety.

We finally made it to OKC. We checked in to hotel, unpacked and before we knew it, it was time to go somewhere else! We were off to the First Baptist Church of OKC. While she was in a meeting with the missons pastor and Senior pastor, I hung around in the church office lobby. I did everything from play doodle jump and temple run on my iPhone, To eating stale mints from a candy dish on the desk, to reading the month late edition of "Our Daily Bread". Afterward we went to eat, listen to a Wednesday night sermon from the pastor and checked out the language lab that other refugees in the city come to, which was very cool! We then when on to see the sanctuary. This thing was massive! One of the first things I noticed was the HUGE pipe organ! The missions pastor told me that until a few years ago it was the biggest in the state. We also learned that years ago, the funeral of a state senator was held there and John F. Kennedy attended. On the front row of the first pew was a small little plate the said this also. Very cool! Another cool this was the pulpit. I was at least 100 years old! On each side of it the furnish was rubbed off of the wood from all the pastors that had preached there, this was awesome and interesting.

All in all I had a pretty good day. Still miss my family, Jess, and friends like crazy, but I have work to do for the kingdom and I know God is keeping them safe.

Much love,

Hayden