When we left off our last blog post, the Storming Jericho trio was just about to enter Cañon City, Colorado. And although we were excited to be reaching a new city, we were also slightly nervous. Due to the fact that

we hadn’t had cell phone reception or wi-fi between towns, we hadn’t been able to follow our usual pattern of emailing and calling churches in search of a safe place to spend the night. As a result, we were basically rolling into Cañon City with no guaranteed place to stay. We had tried to call a few churches late on Saturday evening, but we didn’t find much success.

Our only hope was waking up earlier than usual on Sunday and trying to book it into Cañon City so we could catch the pastor at one of the city’s churches before the church closed for the day. We sort of hoped that if we looked ragged and worn out enough, there was no way a kindhearted pastor could reject us if we asked to spend the night on the floor of a church nursery or youth room.

We reached Cañon City around 11:45 a.m. and made our way toward the first two churches on our map. Disappointingly, both churches were empty and locked up for the day. As we sat on the sidewalk contemplating what to do next, a feeling urged me to head toward the Methodist Church, which was about 4 blocks away. At this point it was after noon, which didn’t bode well for finding a pastor still around.

As we pulled up to the Methodist Church, Lindsie and I were pumped to see numerous church members still lingering after what must’ve been the late service. We asked about the pastor, and a nice congregation member led me through the church to the fellowship hall. There, I apologized for the short notice and asked Pastor Eric if they might have a place in the church where we could safely spend the night. He told me to wait just a moment and he’d figure something out.

A few minutes later, Pastor Eric introduced me to a lovely woman named Diane. She was incredibly excited about our journey and Pastor Eric mentioned that she had a spare bedroom for us (along with a chance to shower and do some laundry), which is an offer we never turn down. Diane was so energetic and so glad to be meeting us that her excitement was contagious. The more we chatted, the more we wanted to sit and talk with Diane all day. And thankfully, we’d have the rest of the afternoon to do just that.

Also thankfully, our carts fit PERFECTLY in the bed of Diane’s truck, which was a great start to our time with her. As we drove to her house, she filled us in on her life, and we filled her in on ours. Once we got to her (and her husband Mike’s) beautiful house, we sat and talked for another 4-5 hours while we waited for him to come home for dinner. It was such a fantastic conversation that the time just flew by.

After a tasty dinner that Diane and Mike whipped up (they used to own an Italian restaurant, so they really, REALLY knew how to prepare a meal), we took our excitedly-awaited shower and got ready to call it a night. We then got to sleep in one of the most comfortable beds Lindsie and I have ever slept in, which was an added blessing.

The next day we prepared to leave. We said a sad goodbye to our new friends and started making our way out of town. Unfortunately, some storm clouds had begun gathering in order to guide us along our path. As we stood on the edge of town getting rained on and seeing nothing but dark, stormy clouds stretched out on the horizon, we realized it might not be the best day for walking 12 miles.

Since we didn’t want to overstay our welcome with Diane, we contacted one of the churches that had been kind enough to call us back. They hadn’t noticed our message until that day (Monday) and told us we had a place to stay if we were still looking for one.

Since we didn’t want to spend a day walking in thunderstorms, we asked if we could spend the night at the church (Christ Episcopal Church to be specific), and the very kind and helpful Reverend Mark Meyer was more than willing to open up the doors for us. It was a beautiful church, and, equally as important at the time, it was dryer than the falling rain outside.

Of course, Diane texted to ask about our progress and Lindsie mentioned we were staying at the church. This was simply unacceptable to Diane, who couldn’t bear to think of us sleeping on the floor of an empty church when she had a perfectly good guest room waiting for us at her house. As a result, we were soon riding in Diane’s truck back to her house once again, and we got to enjoy another tasty meal, a junior high school musical concert (that Diane’s friends’ daughter was performing in) and another night of sleep in that awesome bed. Needless to say, we were thankful.

The next day we actually left Cañon City and made our way toward Penrose, Colorado. It was an easy enough walk, even if it was a little windy and slightly rainy. Fortunately, it was nothing we couldn’t handle, and we pulled into Penrose to connect with Andrew and Victoria from Beaver Park Friend’s Church. Andrew, Victoria and their little son were awesome. Not only did they provide a place for us to sleep, but they also fed us a delicious dinner, offered us showers, and shared a great conversation with us for several hours. It was pretty much exactly what we needed after a day of wind and rain.

In another exciting twist, our friend Melissa (from Gunnison) had to travel to Denver and, conveniently, Penrose was on the way. She stopped in to stay with us at the church in Penrose, and we had a great time chatting with her and giving her an authentic Storming Jericho “camping in a church” experience.

The next morning we said goodbye to Melissa and said goodbye to our new friends from Beaver Park Friend’s Church. We pushed toward Pueblo West, which was a good 18 miles away. The wind was brutal almost the entire way there, but we limped our way into the Sonrise Church parking lot before the end of the day.

We weren’t at Sonrise for our typical reason for stopping in at a church along the walk (which, sadly, is sleeping on the floor). We were at Sonrise because we were getting picked up that night by Lindsie’s friend Beth and taken back to her place in Colorado Springs, but needed a place to keep our carts so we wouldn’t have to stuff everything into her car. And since it shouldn’t be a surprise that God has gone out of His way to make things good for us, we actually got connected to Sonrise through Diane, who we’d stayed with in Cañon City. Diane’s friend Jen works at Sonrise, and she was more than willing to help us out. Once again, we were excited to see God taking care of us.

We arrived at the church around 4 pm, but Beth wouldn’t get into town until about 9:30 or 10 pm that night. Rather than making us sit out on the curb, Jen went above and beyond and called another lovely woman who worked at the church named Michelle. Michelle lived nearby and wanted to treat us to dinner and a comfortable place to sit while we waited for Beth. Both Jen and another gentleman from the church mentioned that Michelle was an incredible cook, so we shouldn’t turn her down.

Seeing as we hadn’t eaten in hours, we couldn’t have turned Michelle down even if we had wanted to. She showed up and brought us to her house, where she, her husband Tom, and her brother Jay treated us to a night of fun conversation and as-delicious-as-promised dinner. We seriously had a blast talking with them, and I think Jay put it best when he told us right before we left, “It felt like we were just sitting around talking with old friends all night long.” We totally agreed.

Then, before we knew it, Beth (and her boyfriend Matt) had pulled up to Michelle’s house. After many screams and hugs and more screams and more hugs between Beth and Lindsie, we started loading up to head to Beth’s apartment in Colorado Springs.

And that is where this lengthy blog post will conclude. There’s still more to share, but I’ll have to get to it in the next post. For now, thanks for reading, and thanks for your continued prayers and support. We always appreciate it, and we’re excited to be continuing on our journey.

More coming soon!

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)