Our first summit found us in Winfield Pennsylvania where we were expectantly awaiting God to show us something new and exciting about Himself. I spent most of the time with pneumonia and Shane and the others diligently filled in where necessary. A precious couple Bill and Sue, joined us on the ‘camp out’ and ministered to our families and the team by fixing broken parts, emptying black water tanks, building propane tank carriers, building sound board platforms, running errands, filling in for our truck to back up the trailer, being Joshua’s constant companion and babysitting while Shane and I were at the hospital. Bill and Sue were servant hearted and tireless as they worked alongside our team.
Grace and Ema Kate celebrated their 14th and 9th birthdays in Winfield, our family visited the Hershey Factory and Shane and Grace were able to spend an afternoon at a shooting range with all sorts of new toys. Grace is a very good shot and she is now learning archery.
Our favorite part of Winfield is the last day, the day we pulled out to leave. We were scheduled to leave before 7 am, we had a long travel day ahead of us. Because we were unable to empty our black water on church grounds (a service truck had been coming to empty us for two weeks) we had scheduled to empty at a local campground, we even prepaid because we would be dumping before 7am that morning when everyone would be asleep. Well, we overslept, the semi got stuck in the grass and could not be hooked to the trailer to back it out so we could move to the next church. Bill hooked his Chevrolet truck to the trailer and moved it where it needed to be, but as we hooked up something jammed and we were unable to lock the trailer in place for a secure fit and lock. As I watched the men trying to get the hookups just right I began to pray for direction and favor and it was then that God prompted me that He wanted to reroute our schedule. I assumed we would have to cancel our hotel reservations for that evening and stay somewhere closer. I asked God to make it clear who He wanted us to minister to or share with and was fully prepared to rearrange our carefully planned travel schedule. A deacon in the church rushed over and fixed the hook up problem. Finally! we were on our way to the campground to empty our tank. The suburban’s battery died, Bill thought it was the alternator and promised to fix it before the team drove it to Tennessee. Shane had driven through the tiny campground several times but that morning, caught between the camp office and a large tree, we began to pray to keep from crying. After a little mathematics and lots of prayer and sweating we wiggled through without tearing anything down. At this point in time it was well past 10 am and everyone was awake. We had drawn a few spectators and in that crowd was Susie. As our family climbed out of the truck to pray a prayer of thanksgiving Susie walked up and heard our prayer. She asked if we thought God was real and ‘up there somewhere’ as I talked with her she shared with me that her husband had recently died and she did not want to go home to Virginia because she was afraid to face a house full of memories. She wanted to know how to live alone and was there any hope. I couldn’t believe it! God had delayed us over 3 hours to go 1/2 mile for this one person that He wanted to show His love. I was able to share with Susie how much God loves us and that Jesus is her hope and comfort, how He has been so faithful to me and our family and He can be for her as well. Several days later I felt led to send Susie a letter detailing the many crazy events of that morning, some of which I did not even include in this post… just to let her know the lengths to which our precious Father in heaven will go to show us He loves us. Of course Jesus is the ultimate picture of how He loves us, but isn’t it amazing how He continues to show us in little day to day things. Sometimes I still cannot believe that we were chosen for this crazy, funny, maddening, lovely, daunting, beautiful, frightening adventure. Pray that we will bring Him great glory, as He is the only One who deserves it. And pray that Susie will know the saving grace of Jesus and the freedom in surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Thanks for stopping by. Leigh