Okay, so first off let me apologize for the extreme belatedness between blogs. Those last few weeks in San Diego were a whirl wind, as well as the trip home (more on that later ; p ) But seriously though, I do promise to do a better job of keeping you updated.
So with that, lets get writing…(its a long one, but a good one. Hope your ready)
So the San Diego summer project ended for me on July 3rd. On the 3rd that entire staff team left San Diego and all of the students (yes that’s right the students run the entire project by themselves sans staff, it really is incredible) for Anaheim, CA for a little staff retreat at Disney Land! Yes is was great fun. This lasted until July 7th, when the whole staff team was to head home for the summer. Well, myself and three other men decided to road trip back from Caifornia…in a 1994 Subaru Legacy with 190,000 miles. You might be thinking that is is not a good idea….and you would be right. Well, partially. Let me explain.
The trip began with us taking off from Anaheim for a 14 hour journey to Grand Junction, CO where the parents of one of our staff directors live. We planned on staying the night there, a good halfway point between Cali and Kansas. Let me preface this by saying that we loaded up “Molly” the Subaru about as much as you can. We had four young men and enough luggage to last each of them 7 weeks…suffice to say ‘ole Molly was riding a bit low. We also noticed that every time we would stop (say for lunch or some gasoline), miss Molly would start smoking like crazy from the undercarriage. And when I say smoke, do not imagine a miniscule amount. We are talking billows of smoke pouring out from underneath the car. But as most 22 year old boys do, we thought to ourselves, “egghhh, she’ll be fine. Let’s keep going.” Well we made it to about 2 hours outside of Grand Junction and stopped for gas again and still smoke was pouring out of Molly. At this point we decided action much be taken. We checked under the hood and basically found that every possible place that could be leaking oil, probably was. We then checked to see how much oil we had left (btw we had gotten an oil change on the 3rd), and she was pretty much bone dry. So basically we had used all of our oil in 4 days…not good. After consulting wise advice from our Hero Jim Fraser (it was Jim’s house who we are attempting to reach), we pumped some more oil and tried to make the last two hours to Grand Junction. Thankfully (and probably by the grace of God) we made it there unharmed.
When we were on the phone with Jim earlier, he told us that he wasn’t going to let us leave Grand Junction until our car was fixed. So as we were pulling up to the GJ, I had this incredible peace about the whole situation. It was one of those moments where you just knew that you were in the hands of a loving God, and He was going to take care of everything. I told my buddy Brian (in the blue shirt in the pic above), “I don’t know how God is going to provide for us, but I’m excited to see how He does. Whether its fixing the car right away, or something else it doesn’t matter, He’s going to do something cool.”
So we wake up Wednesday morning to Jim letting us know that miss Molly is in pretty bad shape. Our observation that everything seemed to be leaking, actually turned out to be accurate! (We take our small victories) At the very earliest we could leave on Friday. Well this was not encouraging news, and for a second I will admit I doubted God, but things would soon get better. Jim proceeded to be our Grand Junction, CO tour guide for the next three days. Each day brought us a new adventure. Whether we were canoeing or swimming in the clearest mountain lakes (Day 1 and 2), hiking up and down beautiful cliffs (Day 2), or touring through the National monument (Day 3/Picture a mini Grand Canyon), we had an incredible time. So instead of worrying and sulking that our car was broken down, we were enjoying all of the outdoor adventure that Colorado had to offer! And each day when we got home, Jim’s wife Gudrun, would prepare the most delicious meal. We ate chicken parmesan, lasagna, brats and sausage, we had fresh fruit everyday, we had raspberry and rhubarb pie with ice cream for dessert, we had everything! It truly was incredible. He we were worrying about our car broken down, and our Father turned that into enjoying life better than had we not broken down!
Pictures: Top left – Douglas, Brian, Brittany, Marta, and Me
Top Right – Brian, Douglas, Brittany, and Me
Bottom – Marta, Brittany, Me
So the story is over right? Well…not exactly. So Friday we spent the day at the Monument (the cliff jumping picture), basically killing time until the car is ready. The plan then is to leave for Boulder to spend the night and see some friends. Well 5 o’clock rolls around and we still haven’t had a phone call…5:15…5:20…(the shop closes at 5:30)…5:25…finally at 5:27 we get a call. “Well Jim, we were working as fast as we could…but uh…we weren’t gonna make it so I told the boys to head home. Car should be ready around noon on Monday.” You could say our happy hearts came to a screeching halt. Oh yes I haven’t told you yet, but the Fraser’s are leaving Saturday morning for Ft. Collins and the lovely bed and breakfast we had been staying at was not longer in service. So yeah, you could say we were a bit worried. But then, Douglas, Brian, and I all remembered that one of our buddies from the San Diego Summer project was having an Internship in Grand Junction, CO this summer! We immediately called him up and he graciously extended the comforts of his trailer. Score! We aren’t bedless for the night!
So we head over to our buddy Brian Fletcher’s trailer to spend the night for what we think will be friday, saturday, and sunday. We get over there, and its pretty nice for a trailer. Not huge, but its better than nothing right? Well, it was definitely better than nothing…but I will let you know that we did not sleep with pillows, sheets, or blankets, but some of us slept on a plastic mattress, and others couch cushions. So like I said, it was no Hotel de Fraser, but it was a roof. The next day we searched for more adventures, and sure enough we found them. (I wish I had pictures, but our camera girl Brittany left with the Fraser’s towards Ft. Collins. So no documentation, but you can probably find pictures of this area on the internet the internet). Anyway, what we found were the “Potholes” aka the Falls. Basically, its this river that runs through the mountain and formed the potholes of water. And the best part is that you can cliff jump from nearly 60 ft into the Potholes! How could we pass up this opportunity right?? We all took our turns jumping, and let me tell you this was no cake walk. The potholes are not big and you had to be careful how you jumped, trust me it get’s your blood pressure pumpin! Brian accidentally did a butt buster and bruised himself pretty good! Nonetheless, he didn’t let it bother him, it was one of the most exciting things He’d ever done.
(I’m sorry this keeps going, but I can’t help it, God kept doing sweet things!)
So we hit the hay that night (this time I use my towel as a pillow and sleep much better) and prepare to find a church in the morning as it will be Sunday. We end up going to the Fraser’s church which is nearby. We walk into the building and automatically we notice how many old people are there…No offense…Old people are very wise but typically they aren’t the most lively folk. I’ll be honest, i definitely judged the church for a second, but the Spirit convicted me quickly and I gave it a chance. And what we found was a loving, thriving, Gospel centered church! We met incredible people like Doc Adams who was a missionary in the Amazon Jungle for 10 years! We met other families former and current missionaries. We got to meet the special guest speakers, Boaz and Ruth from Morocco! They grew up Muslim in Morocco even memorizing the entire Koran. But Christ called them to Himself, and now they are ministering to their home country in the face of sever persecution! The last people we met were the Thompson’s. We sat down to lunch with them (The church had a barbecue and invited us to come for free!), and the conversation went basically like this…”Hi we are the Thompson’s. Hi nice to meet you. I’m Danny, this is Brian, and this is Douglas. Well what brings you to our church? Well, our car broke down so we have been stuck in Grand Junction for a few days. Oh really, well do you need a place to stay?” Seriously, after less than 30 seconds they offered their home to us! God’s provision is just crazy! After those past few uncomfortable nights of sleep we quickly accepted their offer. The rest of the day included playing volleyball with a few of the families for a couple hours, and then the Thompson’s two son’s took us up into the mountains for some target practice with their shotguns and handguns! I was born a city boy, so this was quite the experience for me! We came back to an incredible meal cooked by Mrs. Thompson of spaghetti and then ice cream and brownies. To cap off the night, we had a worship jam session with the whole family as, naturally, the entire family plays musical instruments. We went to sleep with melodies of How Great is our God drifting through our heads…
The next day, we picked up the car good as new (after a delicious lunch made by Mrs. Thompson of course), and finally began our trek back home. To recap, we spent nearly a week “stuck” in Grand Junction. Yet we had nearly every meal provided for, we had a bed and a roof over our head to sleep in, and we had an incredible amount of fun while we were there. This is not your typical car breaking down story. It was funny, we weren’t even surprised at what happened on Sunday. It almost seem natural for complete strangers to welcome you in as family, give without even a thought of receiving in return. And that’s the God that we serve. Why do we worry? Why do we fret over these tiny little things? He doesn’t just take care of us, He provides and THEN SOME! I think about how when Jesus fed the 5000, with five loaves and two fish, and after they finish eating they pick up 12 baskets of leftover food! Our God doesn’t just provide, He provides in ABUNDANCE. This couldn’t be more clearer to me than after this trip. Our God loves us, and will take care of us. No matter the situation.
“But my God shall supply ALL of your needs according to His riches in Glory, in Christ Jesus”
~ Philippians 4:19
