long weekend…

we learned a lot this weekend and God stretched us in some major ways. we had our hardest night on the streets yet on friday, but saturday went much smoother and we were able to make some money. we bought our bus tickets to head to new york this thursday, and i know that will be a very trying experience up there. we are exhausted already from our time here in philly and it seems like we’ve been out here for months. i’m sure with the size of new york the experience will only be more difficult.

thank you all so much for the comments you leave, and we’ve had a couple good questions asked to us so we wanted to take some time to answer them. we have chosen to not tell people the reason we are out here. we know that if people knew we were here by choice they would treat us differently, and it would be more dangerous for us because they would expect us to have money so it would be more threatening for us physically. it’s interesting because the only people who ask us why we are here are those who arern’t on the street. it seems like with those on the street it’s kind of a don’t ask don’t tell type of thing. we have had a number of non street people ask us where we came from and why we’re here so we have tried hard to come up with something to tell them. we didn’t want to lie to people,  but because the job market in the midwest is so bad right now, most people assume that we couldn’t find a job over there so we headed here because there is more potential up here. jobs are still scarce around here, but there is more available than back around dayton. most people are satisfied with something like that and don’t seem to ask much more about it. as to our age out here a lot of people assume we are just travelers and trying to make it as musicians because we have a guitar. we have actually met a number of people our age who are at hard spots in their lives right now and are living on the streets as well. a lot of people assume we are drug addicts because they don’t understand why people our age would already be homeless, but like i said it is fairly common for 20 somethings to be out here because we have lost so many factor type jobs in the states.

recently God has really been teaching me how much He loves people. He loves all people right where they are in their life which is so hard for us to imagine. we try so hard to make God love us by getting caught up in religion, when our religious practices are nothing but “filthy rags” before God. if i can encourage you wtih anything right now just know that no matter where you are in life God loves you more than you can imagine. the love of God and the grace of God are such amazing gifts! don’t burn yourself out working so hard to make Him love you because nothing you do can make Him love you anymore or any less.

i know these weren’t the best answers to your questions but we only had the internet for a few minutes so we had to hurry. but thank you all for the posts and the questions…keep them coming! we love to hear from you all and appreciate your prayers so much.

shaggy