Pastor Matt and Jeff Arizona Trip Update

posted 07 Nov 2007 in church news | 18 comments

We've travelled nearly 800 miles so far and are now in Roswell, New Mexico, home of the infamous UFO conspiracy. It's a quirky desert town that even has an UFO museum. We stopped here to meet a Pastor.

Pastor Matt and Jeff ready to roll!

Tuesday: so far this trip has been filled with adventure and blessing. Now in our 4th day, we left Tulsa early Tuesday morning and drove to Oklahoma City and met with Pastor Ron McKey - a great pastor and church who has supported this ministry now for years! After a great Mexican Lunch we were back on the bikes fighting against the wind, riding on into the setting sun. We drove speedily down Highway 40 to a little town in Western Oklahoma, to meet another pastor and spend the night at their ranch.

This Pastor had 500 acres donated to him about 5 years ago and in that time he's created the most beautiful little retreat centre. With a river down the middle of the property and loads of wildlife, it was an idyllic place for our first night. They even treated us to a wonderful steak dinner!

During dinner we got to know each other and Pastor Jeff was able to share his testimony. This blessed our hosts who work with people who come from similar backgrounds, so they asked Jeff and I to share at their morning devotions which we gladly did.


So our second morning began at 6am to pack up and get ready for the morning devotions. It was a great time of blessing sharing with the men and ladies who came. We shared some video clips of recent mission trips and then Jeff shared some of his background and ministered. After some great Q & A's it was time to hit the road!

Wednesday: Overnight the weather had turned from sunny and hot to cold and really windy! We fought the wind for about 30 miles on the motorway but then came off onto a single lane highway that took us through the cotton fields of West Oklahoma and into Texas!

Our first and second stops on Wednesday were 260 miles down the road to Lubbock, TX. Every 80 miles or so we have to stop to refuel and check our directions so it takes longer than if we were driving a car - but we're able to maintain a good pace while on the road - even with the winds beating against us.

Wednesday night we went to church with a Pastor friend from Bible School, Bracken Christian. His church was putting on a special service/outreach for the children because of Halloween.


Thursday: the next morning we had to get Jeff's bike looked-at by a local Kawasaki dealership. The seals on the forks had started to leak! We suspect it might be from sand that got into the forks when driving down the dirt road to the ranch on Tuesday night. The mechanics said it would take a week to order the parts! He said we can drive on it till we get to Phoenix and it will be safe enough - but it needs fixing soon.

So by 9:45 am we were on the road again and it was a FREEZING sunny day! With hardly a cloud in the sky the Texas night had grown ice-cold and as we drove down the road at 70 mph it was beyond cold! So at our first stop for fuel we piled on the clothes and even put on our water-proofs over the top of everything!

As we made our way towards Roswell, New Mexico we drove on a stretch of road where there was literally nothing around as far as you could see - and you could see for miles! This makes great prayer time! I've prayed for hours since leaving Tulsa! At one remote place we passed a herd of antelope!


With the occasional sagebrush blowing across the road we barrelled down the single lane state highways as fast as we could! Our only concern would be that we would find a stretch where the gas stations were more than 100 miles apart!

In fact Jeff almost did run out (his tank is smaller than mine)! We were pushing our limit when we saw a sign for a small town in 25 miles. Believing we could just make it there, we pushed on. With Jeff's yellow fuel light on, we drove to where the town should be - and found only a single shack of a house! You know the typical sort of thing you would see on the TV... loads of stuff stacked up around the property... However - there was NO GAS PUMP!!!


As we drove by, we came to a stop a mile past the shack and Jeff said he thought he saw the town's name on the side of the shack. The only thing was there was no gas pump - we were in trouble. So we decided to go back and find out what the deal was.

Jeff when into the shack which, as it turned out, doubles as a 'cafe'. Out came an old skinny Texan, complete with red-checked shirt, boots and ten-gallon hat! Talking as slow as molasses, he eventually told us how someone stops by needing gas almost every day, so he kept a five-gallon tank ready. So he helped us fill up and told us all about that area. It turned out that the people measure ranches out by the mile. He rattled off about 5 different ranches in the area that had between 250-300 'sections'. A section we were told is one square-mile!!!

So, intrigued by our rescuer, we thought we would come in for lunch and had some of the best pork BBQ sandwiches we've ever, had! While sitting there devouring our sandwiches several of the locals stopped by - we had some great conversations!


Back on the road we pushed on another 60 miles to Roswell where we met Pastor Troy, of Church On The Move. An energetic pastor who is passionate about souls... he was very interested to hear about all the Iranians who had been born again in our church in England, because he lived in Iran for a couple years with his Dad who was in the military. He then asked if he could put us up in a hotel... which was an answer to prayers as we were both pretty tired by now.

At the hotel I jumped into the hot-tub for a relaxing soak while Jeff took to the bath-tub up in our room. At about 6pm we both layed down on our beds for 'a short nap' - only to wake up the next morning at 6am!


Friday: I'm now using the hotel wireless to write this and Jeff and I are getting ready to hit the road again. Today we need to push on all day and get as close to Arizona as we possibly can. The guys at the roadside shack warned us to look out for Elk as we travel west of Roswell! It is supposed to be a beautiful drive. We're also going to be filming for our 'Ride of a Lifetime' promotional video.

Thanks for praying for us and believing for more divine contacts... everyone we've met with so far has been very excited about what we are doing and praying about how they might support it.

you can see more photos on our flickr page the end.






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