DAY 2

HOLY HOTNESS! So last night we slept in the van. Let me tell you...we sweat off about 10lbs. each. haha. At about 1 in the morning we were woken by a street sweeper in the middle of Wal-Mart parking lot! It seemed like they were there for HOURS! It eventually cooled off and all in all it wasn't so bad. Brooke also had a SWEET dream last night. In the dream we were in the van in the very parking lot we were sleeping in, and our biological and church family was still surrounding the us, holding hands in prayer. What an awesome reminder that we were not alone sleeping in the middle of Illinois!

Encounters:

• Found Debbie in Walgreen's in Peoria and prayed for her husband, Harry's, ear. Believing that he is not longer in pain!
• We walked around a mall Springfield for quite some time, passing an elderly woman sitting on a bench all by herself. After we chose a bench of our own down the hall from her she walked down to the bench right across from us and sat down again. So I (Brooke) jumped up and went over, sat by her, and started a conversation about what we were doing. She denied prayer but we still reminded her of her value in God's eyes. To which she replied, "I've been alive for a long time, Babe - 90 years! And this is my walk everyday." I don't know if she meant her faith walk or her physical walk through the mall. Either way, it was a blessing merely talking with her. My mom sent us this verse this morning and I really think it applies: Hebrews 3:2 "Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!"
• Dani here! Ok. Yesterday I had the word "fish net" as a clue. Today we went to the mall and the first place we went was Dick's Sporting Goods. We stood by the fishing nets for a while and waited forever. No treasure was to be found in Dick's so we walked around the mall for a while. When we were ready to leave we walked back in Dick's again and went back to the fishing area. There was a man standing in the aisle right by the fish nets. I automatically felt like I was supposed to approach him. I went up to him and and told him what we were doing and if there was anything I could pray with him about. I could sense a real heaviness on him. His name was Tad and he started talking about how he hadn't seen his two year old son, Liam, for 2 months and 16 days. He was having problems with his ex-wife and custody issues. I prayed for him and when I was done Kiersten told him that God has a plan and purpose for his life and that things in his past didn't matter anymore. Even though "fish net" was the only clue I had I really feel like God gave me a feeling inside that I was supposed to approach him. Sometimes we don't have very many clues or any at all, but I believe God can tug on our hearts and let us know who his treasures are.
  
• Hola! It's Kiersten :) We are all telling about our encounters. I just have to mention that we believe there are going to be so many that eventually we won't be able to blog about them all. Buuuut, today as we were leaving Dick's after praying for Tad, we were standing outside the store waiting for the rain to stop. We were about ready to leave, and Dani says, "guys, we need to wait 10 more minutes." So we did. And we were supposed to. I see this lady running in wearing a pink shirt and carrying a blue umbrella... which were clues. So we went up to her (Judy), told her she was highlighted and found out her mom was just put in the hospital with pneumonia and urinary tract infection. We prayed for complete healing and told her to talk to her mom to find out!
  
• AND FINALLY... JUST NOW... while Brooke was typing the first story up there^ (as we sit on the floor of Barnes&Nobles), we had another! I had JUST written down livestrong bracelet because it randomly came to mind, and then saw a guy looking at books right next to us for a while. Saw the bracelet on his wrist as he turned to the side, grabbed Dani, we went and talked to him, prayed for his wife and her thyroid condition, and we believe she is healed!!!! God loves them so much.

Blessings/Fun Stuff:

• Put our feet in the Mississippi. O yes. It wasn't all that magical though. Kinda gross.
• Played frisbee under the St. Louis arch!!
• When we were at the mall in Springfield, we were getting kind of discouraged as we were walking around, but finding no one. Then we passed a store where the music was pumping, and the lyrics said "DON'T STOP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING..." hahahah. Thanks, God. So we didn't. And ended up finding the treasures.
• O... and we stopped at Mt. Olive... and went to the cemetery. Who knows why :D

Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done. bdk

p.s. Thanks for the comments, we love that :)