Kansas City - Day 3 Dec 21 - 11:22 PM

Three and a half hours of sleep is not sufficient if one's car loses the ability to produce heat. Maybe it's because all of middle North America was below ten degrees outside that the heat in Paul's Audi did not want to cooperate. We departed the Burns residence outside of Cincinnati at 6 AM, trying not to wake anybody. Mike drove first, but the car was only spitting out cold heat, and my toes went numb. For hours I tried wiggling them to keep the blood moving around, but I got tired and fell asleep. Thirty minutes later when I awoke, my toes were cold, hard stones. I'll skip the spiritual metaphor aspect of this rant and just say that I am terrified of being in the cold, especially since I read the story in the Jesus Freaks book about where Christians were forced to sit naked on a slab of ice in below-zero temperatures. In the car, I also kept thinking about Richard from yesterday.

We did a lot of eating in the car and didn't stop anywhere for food. We did stop in St. Louis to see that giant silver arch monument thingamajig. The museum was surprisingly professional and the employees were warm and kind. I like telling people that I'm traveling across the country just to see how they react. Lots of them seem entirely indifferent as if it's nothing at all, and I think I like that reaction the best.

Paul drove the rest of the way to Kansas City where we are staying with a family that lives on IHOP (International House of Prayer) property. If I'm not mistaken, the family has 12 adopted children and 3 of their own. This house that we are staying in is a registered children's home or something like that. We went to an IHOP service tonight, and the music was ridiculously professional. I've never experienced a televised religious service in person until today. Then we went to one of the prayer houses, where they've been continually praying without stopping for over nine years. 24/7. They pray a lot. The worship music there was even more incredible and Mike and I agreed that we didn't understand how one church can have so many amazing musicians playing all the time, even at once in separate buildings.

Whenever I am moved by music I question why I am in school for the next fours years. Good "worship" music gives me profound lyrical ideas that I just want to shout at the top of my lungs to reach out to others. I want to be an intense spoken-word/yelling vocalist for an ambient/heavy-post-rock band. Every time I think about it I question why I don't just go do it now. I have never been more passionate about the Gospel than I have when involved with intense, heartfelt music that I helped create. My sabbath from loud and desperate music is over.

Tomorrow we will wake up and drive to Denver.

EDIT: I will comment on today later on. For all those who have heard what is up with us right now, thank you for your prayers. Keep em coming. I'd rather write about these events in retrospect.