En Route to Texas

I'm going to start this off with this. The devil hates you. He hates you and your family and wants you dead. So, if you're the kind of Christian that just goes through life going to church once a week to give God a quick nod, then you will NOT be able to relate to anything you read here.

If you're not doing anything to advance the Kingdom of God, then you're no threat to the enemy whatsoever, you'll hardly ever get attacked by him, and he'll still be able to kill you, but it'll be through quiet desperation. Your life wont be filled with wonder, awe, suspense, adventure, excitement, and thrills. If you let him, the devil will fill it with dread, repetition, depression, and fear. Don't let him. Take action.

First Stop, STARBUCKS!

We headed out at around 3:30pm and made our our first stop to get some fuel... AT STARBUCKS! It was so hot, so Christina and I got cold drinks. She got a coffee frappucino and I got an iced latte. I also grabbed a double shot and throw it in the cooler. Something tells me it's going to come in handy.

Lexington, VA is approximately 5 hours from Trenton, NJ so I drove the first half and Christina took the second half. At the point Christina took the wheel, it was already night and it had started to drizzle a bit. Then, it rained harder. Then, trees were starting to fall down! Seriously. Cars had pulled off to the side of the road and others took refuge underneath overpasses but not Christina. "I am NOT pulling over. We are driving through this!", she said. It was very windy and very scary. At least for me. Christina loved it, but then this is the girl who loves driving in the snow. So, I was, literally, along for the ride at this point. Scary? Yes. But, it was also very exciting, too! As the night sky lit up with lightning, more evidence of it's wrath was exposed. We drove past fallen tree after fallen tree. Amazing.

We finally arrive in Lexington, VA to a dark hotel. My first though was, "where is everybody?" Most people and businesses in the area lost power due to the storm including our hotel. "I'm sorry, but I can't check you in. I have no electricity to make a key card for you", the front desk person tells me. "We just drove in from NJ, we're very tired, we're getting a room", I informed the front desk person. Needless to say, within 10 minutes, we got a room. Thank you, Lord.

As we head to our room, everything is dark. The once operational elevator now stands with its door 75% open. For some reason, this was a particularly creepy sight. We get to our room, and wandered around it with only the glow from our  iPod screens. We go to bed with the door chained but open.a few people actually slept outside their rooms on the balcony. The room was free.

Day 2 - Lexington, VA to Nashville, TN
Saturday, June 30, 2012

We leave at 5:50am and head for Nashville, TN. It's early, we're tired. I remember the double shot in the cooler! Christina grabs it for me as I'm driving to, where else, Starbucks. (Which, by the way, should fund any and all of our future trips-we certainly earned it) As we pull into Starbucks'n parking lot, we see that a fallen light pole has crushed the top of someone's car. We find out later, it was due to the storm the previous night. The one Christina was determined to drive through! The pole fell, bounced off the car and laid beside it. We also find out that this storm ripped through a few states as well causing major damage and power outages! "I am NOT pulling over. We are driving through this!" rings in my head as we find out the news.

We met a guy named Chip while at Starbucks and hung out with him for a while. He told us about his life while we sat in the lot drinking our much needed coffee. Christina and I pray that Chip receives such revelation about the Lord Jesus and that him and his whole household are saved.

On the way to Nashville, we stopped off in Knoxville, TN. Our first stop was for some well needed, you guessed it, COFFEE! Christina looked up coffee house on yelp.com (check out her reviews here) and found 2 contenders. "Old City Java" and "Remedy". Remedy won only because of the mention of their barista, Matt, and his notable customer service. We were not disappointed by Remedy or Matt. One of the BEST iced lattes Christina has ever had. Remedy is a really cool space to check out if you ever find yourself in the historic district of Knoxville, TN. EXCELLENT reuse of an old warehouse space. As we sat sipping our drinks discussing the Lord, as well as our trip, Angela, one of the frequent patrons came over to chat. She was opinionated, highly energetic, loud, friendly, and... she was 4 years old. We hung out with Angela for the rest of the time at Remedy discussing important matters like the birthday party she was going to, the presents she had to buy, how her brother cancelled his boy scouts meeting due to the heat but wasn't QUITTING boy scouts, and her stuffed dog also named Angela. As we were leaving, Angela raced around our legs and blocked the door so we couldn't open it. We were able to outwit her, and opened the door. Promising to come back the next time we were in Knoxville, we said Goodbye to her and Matt.

We arrived in Nashville, TN hours later, check in, and head downtown for dinner. Downtown Nashville is hopping with activity, unfortunately, a lot of the activity is no good. There's this one thing called the Pedal Tavern. Its  different take on a pub crawl. You pedal around town, with 16 other people, while someone in the middle of it serves the group drinks. Christina and I honestly couldn't figure out how Nashville can even allow this thing. It seems like a major liability. They pedal this thing right alongside moving traffic...while drinking!!!

As we were eating dinner, we saw an Elvis impersonator walking around the street. He wasn't singing or anything, he was just walking around talking to people and taking pictures with them for tips. After dinner, as we were going to get some ice cream, we saw "Elvis" and started talking to him. We found out his name is really Chuck, and that he is also a Christian, told him we would pray for him, (hint: We didn't ask him, "would you like us to pray for you?", we told that we would pray for him. And we did. Right then, on the spot.) and after we prayed, we hugged, and he said, "That was the best tip I got all day."

Day 3 - Nashville, TN to Little Rock, AR
Sunday, July 1, 2012

Look, we're in the south, and when you're in the south, the ONLY place you go to have breakfast is Waffle House. Thankfully, there was one across the street from our hotel. Breakfast was, as always, fantastic. (as you can see below.) The coffee was not our usual 90 octane so I still felt a little groggy.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Christina says, "Wait. I need to go back inside for a minute." She does. She comes out about 3 minutes later and gets into the car as we leave. "There was an older woman in there named Eva who is the manager, and I just wanted to encourage her and let her know that God loves her." That made that woman's day. That's my wife's mission in life; to let as many people know how much God loves them and to not have one drop of anointing left in her when she meets Jesus.

We arrive in Memphis. About 20 years ago, I was in Memphis on business and after work I has decided to visit Graceland. The home of Elvis Presley. It was a very strange tour, to say the least, but it was also very interesting, nonetheless. I also got to record my own rendition of "Teddy Bear" and "That's All Right" in my best Elvis voice. This time around, no Graceland, no singing, but Christina and I DID do the Sun Recording Studios tour which is where Elvis got his start. I mean THIS is the ACTUAL place where he started. He recorded his first record here and he took off. Not only him, but also, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, etc. The studio is still in operation today doing tours during the day and recording sessions at night. Beale Street is alive and well. Music blares from every other restaurant along the strip and on the street, and nearby parks, bands perform for tips and people are generally just having a really good time.

We drive to Little Rock, AR, check in to the hotel, and call it a night.

Day 4 - Little Rock, AR to Ft. Worth, TX
Monday, July 2, 2012
We arrived in Little Rock late so we didn't check out the town at all. We just checked in, went to sleep, woke up and left the hotel. Now, there WERE 2 really cool things that DID happened in Little Rock. 

Cool thing #1 - We stopped at the gas station across the street from the hotel to fill up. As we did, I got some windshield wiper fluid out of the trunk to refill the washer tank with. I finish, put it back in the trunk, close the trunk, replace the gas nozzle, get in the car and put her in gear. While I'm about to drive away, I notice my trunk light is on. "I thought I closed that", I think to myself.

Now, before I share the next part, I want you to understand something. Any and all of the testimonies we share, we give the glory and the credit to Him. To the lord Jesus. What He does for one of His sons or daughters, He will do for all of them. There is nothing special about Frank and Christina Sasso on our own. God is not a respecter of people and He has no favorites that He does special things for. He loves you just as much as He loves us. The reason we share these events is to testify to how good God is and to encourage you. The Word says in Revelation 12:11 -  that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

That said, I get out of the car to close my trunk,  and on my way to get back into the car, I noticed a folded $100. dollar bill on the ground by my tire.

I say to Christina, "Look! A hundred dollars!! "See if anyone lost anything", she says. "Grrrr, ok." So, I go up to this one guy and asked him if he lost anything. He tells me that he didn't but his brother might have. "Where's your brother?", I ask. "Here he comes now", he says. I walk up him as he's coming out of the store in the gas station. He tells me he didn't lose anything and then says, "Why? Whatcha got? I lost $5.00, I think I lost $10.00!" I tell him that it was neither 5 or 10 and I return to the car. In the meantime, Christina was in the car thinking, "ok, we just heard this message from Andrew Wommack about money being 'the least thing', are we ready to put it to the test? Are we going to trust Him, or are we just going to say we trust Him. Because God does say in Malachi 3:10 to 'to test Me in this'." The word "this" meaning money. I get back in the car and tell Christina that nobody is claiming it. Nobody lost it. Then she says, "I think we should give it to them." I asked her to repeat herself. "I think we should just give it to them. Wouldn't THAT be radical?!" As my hand slowly reaches for the door latch, I say, "That WOULD be radical". I get out of the car, walk over to them and hand one of them the $100. I told him that it was from Jesus and that He so loves them. he looks at me in unbelief and says, "nobody does this, I'll never forget this!"  THAT was cool thing #1. With that, Christina and I leave the gas station for additional fuel...STARBUCKS!!! We found NO Starbucks and we decided to settle for McDonald's. We pull into McDonald's and as I finished parking, Christina spotted a Starbucks across the road! Oh, Happy Day!

Cool thing #2 - We're at Starbucks and while we're drinking our lattes, Christina says, "I think you have a word for that man". She points out a guy talking on his cell phone in his van. Now, in the past, anytime Christina would say that to me, I would ask the Lord if there was a message He had to give somebody. Sometimes He would and sometimes not. If He didn't, then I would leave it alone, if He did, I'd deliver the message. Now, whether the Lord has a specific message or not, I will go unto the person and bless them. Whenever my wife thinks I have a word for someone, I will go to that person and bless them. This was one of those times. I went up to the guy, told him that it's possible the Lord has a word for him, he was very accepting of it, and I blessed him. He suffer from some lower back pain. It turns out he's a pastor for a local  church. 

(more to come)