Epicness!!!

I am not even sure where to start with this. Let's see here...So over the summer, Stephen, Gio, and I got to know Jayson. Jayson was our boss for Stanley Steemer and we got to challenge him in his faith and I know God did some pretty amazing things over the summer with just our little group of 4. Jayson was hoping that we would be able to come out for a Thanksgiving break trip like we did last year. That is where this story starts...

I knew that we were not going out to El Paso for a Thanksgiving break trip but I really wanted to bless Jayson so that we could see him again and encourage him. I decided that I would try as hard as I could to get down there for a short little trip. So I asked Stephen and Gio what they thought about it and they eventually said yes. I started working on the plans and got a place to stay at and was able to tell Jayson that we were coming down. We got to stay with Ryan and Amanda which was great fun as Stephen and I got to stay with them over the summer.

We headed down to my parents place after The Rock on Friday to stay the night. We got coffee and breakfast to go from my parents, which was awesome, and we were headed to Gio's place to drop stuff off there and to see his mom on Saturday morning. We got there and had even more coffee, which was okay with me considering that it was really good! Finally we were off to El Paso. After a long drive, lots of gas, and good times in the car we finally got down there. We made great time due to Gio's lack of being able to pay attention to what the reading was on the speedometer was.

We grabbed some dinner at Sonic as us three have some pretty good memories at sonic. And then we went to church, and that was freaking awesome in itself. Worship was great and then Tom talked about how we are not citizen's of this world but of a different kingdom. And I honestly can't wait till I am taken home. You can check the message out here, and I recommend it! Just click on Holy War (11/29/09). We stayed and helped clean up a bit and then headed home with the Ryan and Amanda. We got to hang out with them some as the packed up because they were actually headed to Colorado for Thanksgiving break. It was good to catch up some but they had to go to bed.

We hung out for a bit in the morning and then headed over to the shindig they were having that day. We got to eat and have lots of yummy food and hang out with the church. We finally were able to see and hang out with Jayson there and catch up over what all has happened since summer. Jayson and his wife Suzie had their first child the Wednesday before we came out which was one major thing that happened with them. Jayson's brother was out along with Suzie's sister and so we got to meet them and hang out and have much fun chatting. We hung out for a while and then headed over to Jayson and Suzie's for pizza and monopoly.

We played one of the oddest games of monopoly that I have ever played. Stephen, as hard as he tried, could not die. The game went a totally different direction than anyone would have thought it would have gone and it was much fun, or at least I thought it was...Stephen might disagree with me. We had to head out then because Jayson had to work early in the morning and we had decided then that we just wanted to head home then instead of stay the night again. And so we went home to pack up and clean up.

I went to the store to grab some food and coffee mugs and a 3 liter of Dr. Pepper. I have to say that I was very proud of the 3 liter :) Gio drove the first leg of the trip while Stephen and I slept so that we could stay awake together during the second leg of the trip. We got to Albuquerque when Gio decided that it was time to wake me up to drive as he was starting to get tunnel vision, if you understand what that means when driving...I think I understand it. I drove for a while talking with Stephen when he decided that it was time to go to sleep as he didn't really sleep while Gio was driving. As I was driving, I all of a sudden saw flashing lights behind me and that feeling of "oh crap, I'm caught". I was averaging about 85-90 during this time because there was absolutely no one on the road. But the sheriff went around me and I saw him cross over the median to a car that was on the other side of the road with it's flashers on. Well with great excitement I hit 105 when I figured that I should slow down so that a po-po really don't pull me over. I got all the way to Trinidad when the sun was coming up and I could no long drive safely. I switched with Gio again, as Stephen really is not a fan of driving, and promptly fell asleep once we were back on the highway. I was awaken by Gio slowing down and he said that he was being pulled over. After that was done, I went back to sleep and was awoken again because he was being pulled over again. And well, I went back to sleep. We got to his house where we picked up his brother and kept driving to my house. Gio decided that he didn't want to drive anymore and so I took over. I had much fun during this last part and made it home safely. This was not the end of the trip yet. We had to take Stephen home and I drove with my mom up to Fort Collins and back and we had a blast on that drive too.

In all the trip was less than 72 hours and I was greatly encouraged. Jayson has completely turned his life around from where it was when we first met him. He stopped drinking and smoking altogether and has been pursuing Christ even more. It is going to be awesome to see what God does with that man! 

As you can see, the whole weekend was completely epic because everything was very impromptu which made it great and did I say epic, well it was epic! If you ever get the chance, go and see some friends so that you may encourage them and so that you may be encouraged yourself.