In April, a friend and I took a road trip to Texas to go to REI and visit friends. I went into weekend with the intention of just marking things off of my monster To Do list for the Race. Oh was I wrong.
I was overwhelmed at the thought of walking into REI to buy gear. I don’t know ANYTHING about the kind of gear I would need, other than what I read in articles. If you haven’t ever looked at gear, there are about a million different things to choose from. An associate met us at the door and helped us find the right person to answer my questions. The guy at REI walked around the entire store with us and answered our lists of questions about everything from packs to underwear. We looked at sleeping bags, got fitted for several different backpacks, and tried out all the sleeping pads. He even suggested waiting for a sale to purchase the gear to save some money. I left REI feeling a little more knowledgeable about the gear I needed.
I spent the rest of the weekend with my sweet friend Vanessa (A post about that is coming next!).
She mentioned that Darron, a friend of ours from the Ranch (who had just gotten back from the Race), was staying with a family in her church. After church, the three of us spent time catching up and sharing about the Race. Before I left, Darron pulled me aside and said, “Before I left on the Race, some people told me they wanted to come alongside me and they blessed me with a lot of my gear. Now I want to bless you with it.” I was shell shocked. Darron gifted me with several of the really big ticket gear items I had just looked at the day before and had decided to wait to purchase.
Oh y’all. I went back to Stillwater that weekend with so much more than a shorter To-Do list. The Lord is teaching me so much about his overwhelming faithfulness and provision.
Stay tuned for Part II of the Texas Adventure!
