On the Road!

My hope of leaving Wednesday before midnight did not come true.  BUT, we finally made it out of our driveway by 8pm on Thursday.  Oh, but wait, it gets better. 

We had newsletters for all our missionaries (including our own) to send out before we left.  Thanks to some friends from church, we were able to have a "folding party" Wednesday night and got them just about ready to go, only lacking a few inserts which we finished the next day. 

The post office has a "rule" that all bulk mailing needs to be to them by 3pm (they keep giving us new rules every time we go in...).  We made it to the post office before 3pm and stood in line for 5 minutes.  When I got up to the counter the lady says, "It's after 3pm.  We can't take them."  No joke. 

Needless to say, after 3 weeks of intense preparation for staging our house to sell, and getting ready for our trip, and homeschooling, and everything else inbetween, I did not answer her too kindly.  Let's just say it was the last straw.  Needless to say, we had to leave the newsletters in the capable hands of our other board member, who hopefully will have better service than I did.  So, look for them in your mail soon!

So, once on the road (which was actually 10:20pm after we finished last minute chores), we drove for about 2 hours and made it to a rest area which allowed overnight parking. 

Refreshed from a good night's sleep, we got back on the road around 7am.  One hour into driving, we hear a strange sound and an unusual pull on the RV.  We decide to pull over to investigate.  Turns out one of our tires on the trailer hauling our SUV started seperating it's tread.  So, it didn't blow out, which could have been worse, but this definitely was not good.

We had to take the SUV off and Bill drove the RV with trailer to the next major city (about 12 miles) while I drove the SUV.  All worked out fine in the end and we were able to put a new tire on and have breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  See, you just have to look for the silver lining in all the clouds.  ;-)

Speaking of silver linings, I have one other amazing event that happened before I sign off for today.  I saved the best for last.  You simply MUST keep reading.

On Wednesday while I was taking things to the RV, Robert walks by and says he and Josh are going to check the mail.    Great, one less thing for me to do.  They both come running back excitedly.  Robert promptly walks up to me and says, "We found some money and 2 DSLites on the side of the road!" 

While I'm digesting the news, he pulls out a huge wad of bills from his pocket.  I gape at it, mouth wide open.  I assumed he had found the usual $1, maybe $5, or even a $20.  Turns out there was over $700.  I am not kidding. 

As best as we can piece it together, it seems the money was thrown out the window in a cup, along with the 2 DSLites from a drug bust because Robert also found drugs close by.  We had already decided to set everything aside and see if anyone came asking about it since we weren't sure what to do originally.  Since it was cash and there were no names on the DS's, there was no way of contacting anyone. 

After time passed and no one came, we came to one conclusion:  this was from God.  Why?  Because both Andrew and Joshua had been wanting a DS for the trip and we needed money to help with the trip for gas and lodging expenses.  Wow, wow, and wow!  How so like God to work in an unexpected way and to "take from the rich [druggies] and give to the poor".  Andrew looked at me and said, "Now I KNOW there's a true and living God."

So, my final thought is:  no matter how tired, how hopeless, how much you want to throw in the towel, keep your faith.  Just like Job, it's OK to feel sorrow, but learn to not give up on God.  We live in a world with the effects of sin.  That won't change.  God doesn't.  He still loves you and gave the ultimate gift of eternal life so when we leave this world, we live with Him.  There's hope.  Keep the faith.

Til next time, Becky