Hello all!

I'm writing today from home - Florence, South Carolina!

We've been home for a couple days now, resting up from the journey and such. Ended up clocking in at just under 10,000 miles! Crazy! Very thankful that our little rental car, Isabella, held up so long!

First, we should go ahead and say that we are so grateful for the huge amount of prayers and support we've felt from all of you! It's been an awesome experience, but without the love we felt from friends and family at home it would have been way more difficult. Thanks for that! :)

After making the trip around the continent and meeting so many fascinating people, we definitely learned some things and got valuable insight. It will all be addressed in the documentary, for sure, but here's some of it:

1) People were pretty open about sharing their personal beliefs with us. Sure, some people said they'd rather not talk to us. Overall, however, people were willing and sometimes eager to talk about their faith or lack thereof. It was quite a confidence booster to see that as a person and as a Christian, one can actually have a meaningful conversation about faith with a stranger. We certainly felt more of that confidence in Christ on this trip (maybe more than ever before), and it led to great talks with great people. Anybody reading this, we can all be bold!

2) No matter who we asked - Christians, Mormons, Atheists, Muslims, or whoever - when we brought up the subject of people's opinions on the Christian church in America today, the usual answer that if Christians acted more like Jesus and actually lived by what he said, people would like us a lot better. Of course, a lot of people had varying opinions apart from that, but that was a pretty common thread. It's amazing to hear how many people have been burned by the church because of Christians not living out the Gospel. We're all guilty of it, most certainly. And that's not something we should beat ourselves up about, but instead, take hold of the grace that Jesus has given us and love people better! If we show the love of Christ, people will notice.
Which leads to the third point:

3) It's so awesome to see the unified vision of churches and ministries across the continent who truly are seeking God's heart! God let us talk to several churches and other ministries all over the place. All these ministries shared so many ideas and missions integral to the Gospel, even though they had no contact or relationship with one another! Including: Establish relationships and community, not just charity. Be patient, sometimes it takes a long time to see results from seeds planted. People should be made to feel valuable, because they are. The time put into these efforts is worth it, because each individual matters to God. The people we meet can enrich our lives as we, hopefully, can enrich theirs, as well.
The great thing about seeing this unified purpose in so many places is that when these types of things are the focus of these ministries, guess what? They work! They aren't stagnant, they are dynamic and God uses them in crazy ways. So uplifting to see!

We'll go into all this and more in the film itself. Keep watching here for updates when we get into editing and such (Can't promise how long it will take, because there is a lot of footage!).

A huge thanks to everyone that made this trip a success-
everybody we met, interviewed, talked to on the street, stayed with, or supported us from home! We love and appreciate you guys. Can't wait to get this footage put together and into something you can watch! We'll let you know as soon as possible!

Thank the Lord for the ways we've seen him work!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Greetings from Virginia!

Made our trip down this way from Michigan a couple days ago.
First day here, we stayed with my cousin, who lives fairly close to Washington, DC. We took advantage of the close proximity to that city and made a visit to the capital the next day.

It was so hot there! After being all through the western US and driving through the desert, we had kinda forgotten about the special kind of heat the East Coast has! So humid.

We attempted to get a meeting with one of our congressmen from South Carolina (or even from any state, for that matter), only to find out that the day before we arrived Congress had gone on August recess and nobody was home. Oh, well. It was still a cool experience to walk around the House of Representatives Offices. :)

We were able to stop a few people for interviews, and those went really well. Got some good material there. Even found some Christian guys who let us pray with them. Very cool.

Eventually, a cop told us we couldn't film with the tripod on the grounds of the Capitol Building, so we packed our stuff and went for a walk to a different part of the city. After several hours there, we got back on the DC Metro and went back to my cousin's house.

It was rad spending some time there, and now we're in Richmond, VA, staying at my brother's house. Thankful for people who have been nice enough to let us share their homes for a couple nights!

We're going to stopover in Spartanburg, SC tomorrow night to see a couple of our friends, and then we're headed to Florence! Home stretch now! :)

It's good to be out on the road, but we're excited to get back and see some familiar faces. Pray that in these last few days God still shows us what he wants us to do out here. You guys are awesome and we love you!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Hey all!

So today we woke up in Dearborn, Michigan. Our goal was to speak to someone (or someones) in the Muslim community there, since it is the largest in the country.

We had little luck at first, finding that some people were off work today at some mosques, and of course since this is Ramadan month, many people were home fasting. We took a break from our search to find a little Lebanese restaurant that was amazing (lamb chops!) before returning to our mission.

Eventually, we made our way to the largest mosque in North America, there in Dearborn. Thankfully, we were able to speak with the executive administrator of the mosque. He was very kind, but told us since he did not have our background info, he could not let us interview people on camera. Apparently, they've had some people recently come in to video, only to then post the footage online in a very skewed way. So that was understandable. However, he did let us talk to him off camera, which was a great experience. He really was a nice guy and had a lot to say about his beliefs, both answering our questions and asking some of his own. We told him our mission was to show the love of Christ, and he seemed to appreciate that. He told us that, too often, Christians and Muslims alike spend too much time on picking out the flaws in other people or groups when really we should just show love. We told him we definitely believed in God's grace and Christ's commandment to love.

Twas a good conversation! One of the best of the trip, even though not on camera. :)

Pray for our friend at the mosque, that he would see what Christians should truly be like, and that he would see the love of Christ in other Christians!

After, we did a long drive to Winchester, Virginia to stay with some family. DC tomorrow! :)

Love you guys!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the lag between blog updates!
We are now back in the States! We were treated with loads of hospitality by everyone we met or hung out with in Canada, though. :)

Spent the last two days in a town outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a friend who I met on a mission trip last year. Her family was super good to us, making us meals and showing us around and such (oh, and you know, letting us sleep at their house. haha).

We ended up getting fewer interviews in Canada than we thought we would, but that's ok! We did get some good footage, and we're moving on in the States now.
(I have to say, I love traveling in other countries, but I also love coming back home!)

Tonight we're staying in Fargo, North Dakota. I've never seen the movie named after this town, but maybe I should, eh?
Anyway, we're starting our journey into the midwest United States tomorrow. Have to drive through Minnesota and Wisconsin, then we're making stops in Illinois and Michigan. Pray for us to get good interviews there, please! And not just the interviews, but that we'd be able to form some relationships and speak truth into peoples' lives.

We're on the home stretch now, and it won't be too long before we're back in SC! But still more to do!

Excited to show you guys the things we've seen and heard!

Thanks to all the folks we stayed with in Canada (Ralph & Donna, and Michelle and her family) for being awesome hosts and great brothers and sisters in Christ! We love you guys!

Look for another blog post soon!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Hello all!

Spent all day yesterday at SYC, the summer camp that Randy volunteered with a couple years ago. Great people out there!

It was great to see a ministry working with teenagers out here, and not only that, but also that the kids seem to respond so well to it! We got an interview with the Pastor who leads it all up, and he told us about how kids always show up at the camp ready for God to move and knowing that he's going to do something big in their lives. That's a rad thing to hear anywhere, but especially in a country like Canada, where we've heard that something like 90% or more of the population doesn't know Christ.

Another thing the Pastor brought up was just how important it is, especially in a place with so few believers, to pour into the lives of kids throughout their development so that the people God wants to call into ministry will be fed and prepared to do so. Of course, that also applies to anyone else, too!

Everyone at the camp was super hospitable to us, just letting us hang around all day and interview folks. The best part came at the end when we got to join in the camp worship service! It had been too long for us without being in a legit service like that! Always awesome to see the name of Christ being lifted up by brothers and sisters in other countries. Our God is a big God!

Added bonus that we got to see one of our friends from BCM back home, Nikki, who is spending the summer volunteering at this camp! So good to see a friendly face from home! (Also got to see her participate in the camp talent show, dancing to a Michael Jackson song, haha.)

Late last night we also got to speak with a young pastor from Calgary, Alberta who just started a church plant there. Super encouraging to see the kingdom being spread that way. Such a nice guy, pray for him! His name is David.
One of the coolest things we've seen in the ministries we've gotten to speak with is how everyone has a unified vision in Christ: relational ministries based on reaching out to and becoming part of the community, showing people the love of Jesus firsthand in their own lives. It's been so awesome to see.

"I see a generation, rising up to take it's place, with selfless faith."
I believe this is truly happening today! There's so many people around us embracing God's call on their lives (and on all of our lives) to spread his good news. Remember what Jesus did for you today, and pray to ask him how best to serve him! It's really as easy as showing love to your neighbor in the name of Christ. Also, pray that Randy and I will do that, too!

Love you guys so much!

On the way to Winnipeg, Manitoba today, which will be a long drive! Talk to you soon!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Greetings from up North! :)

Finally made it to Canada, after an extremely long drive. Something like 15 hours, plus stops!

We're staying in Edmonton, Alberta with a pastor friend Randy knows from when he was up here a few summers ago. It's beautiful up here! And besides the big cities, sparsely populated. We had a bit of a shock when we crossed the border - found our GPS wasn't programmed for Canada like we thought it was. That means Google Maps galore! It was a bit of a pain not to know where we were going for awhile, but we pulled over and got readjusted quickly. All is fine!

Made it here super late last night, but our hosts are incredibly hospitable. It's been an absolute pleasure just to talk to Ralph and his wife, Donna, here at their house. Quite obvious that he is full of the Holy Spirit and God-given wisdom. A much needed encouragement!

Heard a story today about a man in New Zealand who used to walk around anywhere he went, stopping random people he came into contact with and asking them if they knew what would happen to them after they died. Not usually a conversation, some people would blow him off or whatever, but he asked the question. There was a travelling evangelist that heard about this guy from several people he came into contact with around the world, people telling him that because of this man's question they pondered the subject. Many eventually came to Christ because of it. When the evangelist was in New Zealand some time later, he randomly met this man in the street, and sure enough the guy asked him the same question he asked all those other folks. The evangelist told him of the results that had come from his questions, and the man wept. He had never known that anyone had accepted Christ because of what he asked.

Pray for me and Randy, that we would be able to inspire people to think with our questions. You never know what God can do with what we say. Pray that the right questions will be asked of the right people and that the Spirit will move through it.

Love you guys!
Let us know how we can pray for you!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Seattle!

It was actually a bit chilly here today! My kind of weather! :)

We weren't really sure what was going to happen today, and to be honest, the day kinda got off to a frustrating start (trying to find our way around and such). However, it turns out God had a plan for the day, anyway (as he always does).

The first 8 or 9 people we talked to Seattle all turned us down. The most of any city so far, I think! We actually had to change locations because no one said yes. We went down by the waterfront, instead.

Of course, in a scenic area like that, there were more tourists, and we did talk to a few (one couple was actually from SC!). Got some footage there, and moved on. Back downtown, we ran into a guy who said that he would advise us to go out of the city to get better interviews, since most people wouldn't probably want to talk, and most people were transplants (not natives of Seattle), and most people weren't churched (not that that mattered to us for the sake of getting a wide variety of opinions). We thanked him and went about our way. The very next guy we stopped, not one minute later, was willing to talk to us, was a native of the Seattle area, and was a super solid Christian. It was quite encouraging!

One thing this guy said stuck out to me. We asked him how God moved in the world today, and he responded by telling us about the relationship that God wants to have with man. He described it as the best relationship you could ever have, with a person that you can tell anything to, where there's no reason to worry and there's nothing to feel bad about.
It's a good reminder to hear these sorts of things said by others. Sometimes I know I, for one, get too caught up in trying to meet goals or do better than I have before or whatnot. But it really is true that once we are in relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ, he is our closest confidant, our reason not to worry, and (by his grace) we have nothing to feel bad about (conviction, yes, but shame, no). We don't have to worry what he thinks of us, how he will react to something we do. We just know that he loves us with a surpassing love and will give us mercy, grace, and loving kindness throughout the days of our lives. What a treasure and a relief. God is love.
Amen!

We ended up getting to talk to a pastor friend of ours who is starting a church here in the Seattle region today, and we're staying with him tonight. He's a great guy, Warren Mainard, and his church is called Essential Church. If you're ever in the area, look it/him up! Tomorrow we're going to see some of the work this new church is doing in the community. Should be good!

Tomorrow we'll also head into Canada, God willing, so there may or may not be a blog post tomorrow night. Keep watching if you want, though!

Love you guys, keep us in your prayers! Lots of traveling to do tomorrow, so it'll be quite the full day. Let us know if we can pray for you, too!

Love you guys!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Hello all!

Another beautiful day in San Francisco. I could seriously live here. Aside from the traffic (which isn't even that bad compared with other big cities). Anyways, it was a successful day.

Went to a couple different parts of town today and grabbed some interviews. People have been fairly willing to talk to us here, despite us being warned that it would be otherwise. It seems when the topic of religion comes up, it's something everyone is generally interested in speaking on, regardless of what their views are.

We tried to stop by the Golden Gate Seminary earlier today, but since it is Saturday nobody was home. We had hoped to take a tour or possibly interview someone from the school, but obviously that didn't work out. Oh, well. It was a lovely campus, though!

Walked around the park behind Giants Stadium in the late afternoon. There's a yacht club back there, where we also saw a man who must have been a pro kite flyer judging from his skills flying one of those contraptions. Really nice and peaceful area (with the exception of game days, I'm sure!).

Tomorrow morning we're leaving for Seattle, Washington! It's going to be about a 14 hour drive, so we probably won't get much done other than travel. But that's ok! We'll head into that town on Monday. :)

Love you guys!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Heya!

Just got through with an awesome day in San Francisco, California!

This is only the second time I've been to this city, and me and Randy enjoyed it so much! Gotta say, I think I'm in love with California! I know it's kinda cliche, but the weather in the Bay area is so nice (60 degrees!), the scenery is beautiful (Golden Gate Park!), and the people are interesting. This city and the state have a lot of character, and it comes through as soon as you get here.

Started the day going over to the Golden Gate Park, which is close to the bridge of the same name. Tried to do some filming there, but the wind was really pretty terrible, so it didn't really work. Oh well, it was still a gorgeous walk along the Bay, anyway.

After, we went into town to Haight Street, a part of town that used to be known for all kinds of counterculture folks living there. Had an awful time finding a parking place (haha) but once we did, we met some cool people for interviews!

Time kinda ran out quick on us today, so we decided we'll stay in San Francisco for an extra day. We were gonna leave tomorrow morning, but instead we'll just stay through tomorrow and leave Sunday early.

Finished the day off with a trip to a theatre in Oakland to see the Dark Knight Rises!
Good stuff. :)

Anyways, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.
It's a great town, and I have a good feeling about the footage we're getting here!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Greetings from Vacaville, California!

Tonight we're about 1 hour outside of San Francisco, which we will be visiting tomorrow afternoon.

But before I get into plans for tomorrow, let me tell you about this morning!
Randy and I followed up on the invitation to come back to the Mormon offices this morning and try to get an interview with a church representative.
What do you know, we actually got one!

We had to go to two different buildings and talk to 4 or 5 different sets of people, explaining who we are and what the purpose of our project is, but we got it!
We were able to talk to a man named Eric, who works for the Latter Day Saint church. He was very generous with his time for us, and quite kind.
I think it was obvious that when we showed up they expected us to be up to no good, possibly trying to paint the LDS church in a bad light. But once they realized we just wanted to ask friendly questions about God and Jesus and the church, everything was much more at ease.

A good conversation was had, which made for a great interview for the documentary. Randy and I couldn't really believe we got official permission from the church to interview someone (complete with name badges and everything), but it happened! God is good!

The rest of the day was spent travelling across Nevada and California to reach our destination. A long drive! 10 hours or so. But worth it. I love San Francisco and I'm looking forward to getting into the city tomorrow!
(We're also excited about the cooler weather... 60 degrees!)

We plan on visiting the Bay itself, where the Golden Gate bridge is, and try to interview there. After, we'll hopefully head to Chinatown and Haight Street and try to talk to some folks on the street, as well.
As for where else, I guess we'll see!

Thanks again for all your support, and keep praying that we are bold and meet the right people!

Love you guys!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

SLC!

Great to get back to interviewing people!
Went around the streets of Salt Lake City today and talked to some folks while also exploring the buildings of the Mormon Church (Latter Day Saints). Quite an interesting experience going in all those buildings! They told us in the LDS Office Building that they may be able to get us an interview with someone high up in the church tomorrow morning, complete with us getting fancy name badges as visitors and all. Hopefully that will work out!

Stopped a Danish guy on the street today, and he said he wasn't religious. Then he proceeded to tell us that he knew he had experienced God in his life, that he saw sin as a barrier between humans having a right relationship with God, and that he believed Jesus was sent from God and that he was the Son of God. But he said he wasn't sure who God was, and he didn't affiliate with a religious group.
It was shocking how close this guy came to getting the whole truth, but just is falling a little short. Please pray for him tonight, that God would show up in his life and that he will turn to Christ as his Savior.

On another note, Salt Lake City is probably my favorite Western US town so far. It seems to have more character than a lot of the others, and the people are nice. It's so hot though! Haha.

Randy's doing a great job with the camera work and we're excited about the footage we're getting! God is good!

Tomorrow we'll do the interview at the Mormon church, then head on to San Francisco!

Love you guys!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Hello, folks!

Sorry for the delay between blog posts!
We didn't find a place to stay last night until fairly late, so Randy and I were both exhausted. Turns out finding lodging near the Grand Canyon is not easy! haha.

Today we visited the Canyon itself. Twas my first time seeing it, and it was amazing! I expected it to be enormous, but it surpassed those expectations! So deep! And you can't even see the whole thing from one spot. I know that may seem like a "duh" thing to say, but it took me off guard! The even cooler part was that there was a rain storm in the Canyon, visibly moving across the landscape. Truly beautiful and a testament to God's handiwork in creation.

Upon leaving the Canyon, we realized there was no straight route into Utah, our next destination. That being the case, we had to trace a path around the Canyon, backtrack a bit in Arizona, basically doing a loop around the whole thing.

The landscape in New Mexico had few signs of civilization, but Arizona definitely beats it there! It's so desolate out here! Saw lots of Native American shops and communities, but that was about it, at least until coming to our current place of rest, Page, Arizona. It's a pretty decent sized town right across the border from Utah, so we're almost where we want to be.

Tomorrow we're driving across Utah and planning on camping outside of Salt Lake City. Can't wait to get into that town and interview some folks! After basically two days of just driving and driving and driving across desert, Randy and I are both ready to get back to talking to folks on the street!

In the book of Acts, we hear about how the disciples, under threat from the religious authorities of the day, prayed to the Lord and asked him to help them "continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 2:29-30). Please pray for the same sense of boldness for me and Randy as we continue this trip!

Also, today take some time to reflect on God's grandness and might. He really is above all things, in control of all things, and the Inventor of all things. He's the greatest scientist, the greatest artist, the greatest musician, the greatest author of all time. And on top of all that, He loves you and longs to have a relationship with you. A real relationship.

Love you guys!
Send us prayer requests if you have them!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Made it to New Mexico!

Wasn't sure if we were going to make it all the way tonight or not (after driving allllllllll the wayyyyyy across Texas - such a huge state!), but we finally did. We're in the town of Clovis, New Mexico, which is right across the border. But that still counts. :P haha.

Left our friends William and Angela's apartment this morning, which was a little bittersweet. Had a great time staying with them and we really appreciated them cooking for us and showing us around Houston!

Before we headed out of town, we stopped by a shopping center to try and grab some interviews. Didn't find many folks there willing to talk to us on camera - don't know whether it was the subject of the documentary, the having to sign the release form, or what, but rejection was common there. Of course, there were also people who did talk to us, and that was great. Always uplifting to have people we stop encourage us in our project!

Our long exodus from Texas began around 3pm and took FOREVER. Seriously, that state is huge. We stopped for dinner and gas a few times, but it took us from 3pm until 2:30am central time to cross over to New Mexico! Woah! Needless to say, we were ready to move on.
The clerk at the front desk of this hotel gave us a sweet deal on the room, so we're staying at a discount price. God is good.

Tomorrow, on to Albuquerque. God willing, we'll find some people to talk to there. Later in the afternoon, it'll be on to the Grand Canyon!

Beautiful scenery awaits!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Our last full day in Houston!

For updates, we did find that microphone we needed yesterday for our camera. It was a bit more pricey than we thought it would be, but guess what? We had a couple of donations (one being of a mystery source) from back home that pretty much covered the cost! Pretty rad! :D God is good!

We've been pretty surprised by how diverse Houston is. When I think Texas, I don't really think diversity (which has proven to be a misconception on my part), but we've seen people of pretty much every ethnic group imaginable here, which is awesome. Lots of cultures here.

As for what happened today, we started off fairly early and headed over to the church where our friend William works as a worship leader. His pastor was gracious enough to give us an interview, and it was good to meet him. Their church is also very multicultural. It was fascinating; many of the things this pastor was saying about how the church reached out to the community around them synced up exactly with what the pastor from Georgia said who we met a few days back. It just goes to show, however far apart believers are geographically, we have the same Holy Spirit living in us and guiding us.

The middle of the day was filled with mundane duties like washing clothes, but even then God gave us a great opportunity. As we were waiting for our wash, Randy noticed two young dudes who turned out to be Mormon missionaries going door to door in William's community. We used that chance to tell them what our project was about and ask them for an interview. They were super nice about it and more than willing to talk with us, so Randy ran back upstairs to grab our equipment and we got to work.
It was a nice talk! The interview went well and we joked around a bit. At one point we told them we got rejected a lot when asking people for interviews on the street and they said, "Oh yeah, we know how that feels." haha. :P

After all the clothes were done, Randy and I drove over to a Buddhist temple we had spotted on the road yesterday. We had hoped to get some footage their for the documentary, but it was kind of a bust. There was one female monk and a fluffy little dog to greet us (along with a Siamese cat lurking around in the back), but the monk didn't speak much English. She gave us a phone and said "Talk to Mr Tom," even though we had no idea of who he was. The man on the other end of the line told me that the people who lived there were Buddhists, lived at the temple, and followed a vegetarian diet, but he said he didn't know what they believed. haha. We were out of luck there, so we just left.

It's certainly been the most multicultural day thus far, and that is rad. We love seeing all these different points of view. We're ending our day with another meal our friends William and Angela cooked for us, and then setting out tomorrow to get back on the road!

New Mexico bound soon enough!

Love you guys and thanks for all the support!

Love in Christ,
Tim and Randy :)

Day 3: New Orleans --> Baton Rouge --> Houston, TX

Hey everyone!

Writing to you from Houston, TX today!

Yesterday we woke up and got an early start into New Orleans.
We weren't expecting it, but it ended up being a bit of a rough afternoon. Way more people turned down our attempts at interviewing them. Probably only about 30% of the people we asked said yes. Among those, we did meet some interesting folks, including an older gentlemen who sold handcrafts on the street, an atheist from New Zealand with his Christian wife, and a middle-aged Roman Catholic businessman.
The rain fell pretty heavy in the Big Easy, meaning we spent a good deal of our time standing under awnings waiting for the storm to let up. Fortunately, we were able to keep the equipment from getting too soaked, but we couldn't say the same thing for ourselves. haha.
New Orleans also made us realize just how badly we need to acquire a better microphone for our camera. It has a pretty decent built-in mic, and we've been surprised about how well it works. However, the street noise and wind in New Orleans was almost too much for it to handle, causing potential audio problems. Randy will probably be able to clean up the sound a bit in the editing process, but it's something to keep in mind going forward.

After all the hassle and frustration we started the day with, we were in need of some encouragement. And guess what? The Lord knew that!
Two of the last people we stopped to interview in New Orleans were a middle-aged couple taking pictures near the coast. We had no idea when we stopped them, but the man ended up being a pastor of a church in Maryland. He gave us a really good interview and at the end he prayed for us. Definitely felt the Spirit move then! I think it was what we needed.

We stopped later that night to see our friend Madeline in Baton Rouge (who we didn't even know was in town until the day before!). We got some coffee and a good Cajun dinner, and even saw a a tiger named Mike (they keep him on the campus at LSU)! Randy was pretty excited about the tiger. haha.

After getting back on the road, we had a 4.5 hour drive to Houston, where we are staying with our friends William and Angela! We didn't get here until 2:15am or so, meaning we were pretty exhausted!
A few hours of solid sleep later and we're ready to get to business in Houston.
We'll be heading out to look for a microphone at some camera shops around the city, and we may even be able to interview some people around the community.

Whatever happens today, watch for updates and we'll let you know how it goes!
Let us know if there's any specific way we can pray for you guys!

Love in Christ,

Tim and Randy :)

Day 2

Brief summary of the day's events!
Set out this morning to spend some time with a church that a friend of ours attends in Newnan, GA. After talking to several members of the church, it was clear that their outlook was very gospel-centered, which was refreshing. We got a chance to interview the pastor, who turned out to be a legit guy with a heart for people. It was an encouraging morning!

In the afternoon we did a bit of sightseeing around a few Georgia towns before setting off on the road through the Deep South! Personally I was happy to get to visit three states I've never been to - Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana - before reaching our destination for tonight. Rest will be had at a tiny hotel about 40 minutes outside of New Orleans, and tomorrow we'll head into the city! We hope to find some more folks to interview in town, as well as get some insight into service/ministry/charity organizations and their work done there.

Thanks so much for all the encouragement we've received from you guys! It means the world!

Love in Christ,

Tim and Randy :)

My dad has always told me that it's easier to get people to open up to you if you ask questions instead of making statements. Today, it hit me how true that is!

We hit our first big stop in our journey today, Atlanta, Georgia. Knowing that we were going to have to approach complete strangers in the streets of a city that is alien to me was a bit of a stressful thought at first. However, on our drive south this morning, Randy and I prayed and asked the Lord to give us boldness and remove our fear of man, and by the time we actually arrived in the city we were both pretty at peace with our mission.

Everyone we talked to in the city today was quite polite, which to be honest was a bit of a shocker to me (I mean, if a person had stopped me in the street like that before I knew Christ, I may not have been very apt to talk to them)! Sure, we got shot down a few times (and by a few times I mean maybe 60% of the people we asked, haha), but even those folks were kind about it.

The people that did agree to speak to us on camera were an interesting group. We asked several questions of nearly everyone, including:

"Who do you think God is?"
"Have you ever seen God work in your life?"
"What is your opinion on the church?"
"What do you think of the term 'sin'?"
"Specifically, what is your opinion of Jesus?"

The way many of the conversations went, it seemed that people were quick to say they believed in God (some even said they followed him), but when the issue of Jesus came up people were much more hesitant or even outright stumped by the question asked. This should be a fascinating issue to explore more deeply in future interviews.

We did have a couple of people tell us they were Christians, one of whom we found out attends Randy and I's home church, NewSpring (this person was from SC)! My first thought was "what a coincidence," but in reality, I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence at all. :)

Regardless of the individual answers to the questions we asked, one thing that was clear was that it was easier to talk about our faith in Jesus by simply asking questions of people first. If we had approached people and immediately made a series of declarative statements, many folks probably would have been far less open to talking to us. However, after our interviews, we always ended our question session by asking if we could pray with our interview subjects. Every single person said yes, regardless of whether they had claimed to be Christian or not. Through this, I think we were able to plant seeds, which I pray the Lord will help grow. I'm certain that some people walked away thinking about Jesus, which is never a bad thing.

Now we are sitting at a friends house in Newnan, Georgia (where we learned the Walking Dead has been filmed! haha) planning for our day tomorrow. We're excited for what the Lord has in store. Keep praying that the Lord will grow and stretch us into who He wants us to be!

We love you guys!

All the glory to God,

Tim and Randy

Hey everyone!

So Randy and I are leaving on a journey this summer, from July 9 - August 9. We are setting out to make a documentary that surveys people’s perceived relevancy of God in their lives. We also hope to discover people’s attitudes towards Christ. We will do this while also sharing the gospel with those we interview. Our goal is to organize all of our research into a documentary film.

Greater than this, our goal is to allow the Lord to move us into opportunities to serve others while we grow closer to Him. Getting into the mindset of truly trusting Him fully with each day, putting aside the fear of man, we hope to grow in our faith on this trip while coming to a better understanding of our purpose/calling as Christ-followers.

See the above map for our planned route! As you can tell, we're planning on hitting several locations in the US and Canada, and we will keep you updated as we arrive in different areas!

Keep watch on this blog and our Facebook group page for updates, as they will (hopefully) come frequently! Also, we'd appreciate it if you would keep us in your prayers. Specifically, you can pray for us in these ways:

1) Open hearts and minds for both us and the people we meet.

2) That the Lord will guide us into opportunities for us to grow in Him, even if we are uncomfortable.

3) For unity in the Spirit between Randy and I as we go along this journey.

Let us know how we can pray for you guys, as well! Feel free to leave comments here or message us or email with feedback regarding our trip and your prayer requests!

We love you guys, and we'll see you in a month!

Your brothers in Christ,

Randy and Timmy! :)