9/11

September 11

My heart goes out to all the ones who've lost friends and family on this tragic day.
:(

I was in middle school when it happened, and for some reason I was at home when I saw it on the news and was so confused as to what was happening!
Suddenly the phone began to ring, and my parents were talking to missionary friends  who were distraught and scared.
Not a fun day at all.
So for any of you affected on that day, I  mourn with you as Christ encourages us in Rom 12:15 to laugh with those who laugh and cry with those who cry.

I guess these kinds of things are all part of our individual life journeys that He has set a path for us to lean on Him and be strenghtened by Him..

On my journey yesterday morning, after an early awakening, Tiffany and I drove about 8 miles to reach our school.
We had a good show and a good setup overall.
I was reminded that God's will is better than what we think our will is when the principal asked me how many students he should get to help us set up.
As much as  I love kids and interactng with them, sometimes it seems easier for me (especially during early mornings when I am having a hard time functioning and interacting with others) to just have Tiff and I do the whole setup by ourselves.
So, I told him "Oh 2 students should be just fine, thank you" (usually we are sent about 6 students).
10 minutes later come out 5 students to help us.
My first reaction was "mmmk. I thought I asked for 2 only...well here we go!"
The students were great and very helpful and with their help we were done right about 30 minutes before the show should start.
Right then a lady walks in and tells us that the kids  only sit in half of the bleachers, meaning our whole entire set up is off center (we assumed the bleachers would be filled, so we set everything up right in the center of the court).
She calls the principal, who had forgotten to give us this minor detail and he asks us to shift everything, in 25 minutes.
We smile and say, "not a problem sir."
We calll the kids back and tell them there is a slight change of plan. So with the help of all 5 kids, we were able to have everything shifted over in 15 min.
I felt humbled and thanked God for having the principal send us 5 kids instead of 2 as I had originally requested. Otherwise, our problem wouldn't have been so easy to fix.

So after the show, we decided to drive in the direction of our school for monday, and on our way stop at a starbucks to use the internet in order to book a hotel for that night and the rest of the weekend.

We saw a couple of starbucks on the way within 30 minutes of driving but decided to drive some more. After about 2 hours of driving and getting farther and father away from civilization, we began to worry a tad bit.
Suddenly I remembered that Mcdonalds now have internet, and since it was lunch time, we decided to stop at one.
Well, the hunger issue got taken care of real fast, but the internet at this Mcdonals' refused to work. We tried and tried for a good 1h30, and nothing.
Finally we figured, well lets keep driving and see if there is another Mcdonald's that might work better. At this point, we have no clue where  we'll be staying that night and are getting tired.
I prayed a short prayer asking God to grant us patience and wisdom to know what to do. ALso to just trust Him.
As we are packing our stuff, a very old man who clearly works in a farm (due to his clothing, dirty hands, and scent) walks over to us and asks us if we had any luck with the internet. We said no and comes closer to us and whispers "well, what I like to do is park right outside of motels and  steal their internet. " :) He then gives us directions to a motel in town that has great signal..
SO we thank him dearly, and follow his directions. WE stumble upon a cute pink Inn and I ask Tiff if we should try their internet. She then says "we might as well see how much they cost and if they have available rooms."
So as I check the internet in the car, she goes inside to ask all of the info.

Well, little did that old man at Mcdonalds know...he had sent us straight to our next motel.
The Safari Inn we stumbled upon by "coincidence" as some would see it, or God's grace as I would see it, is perfect. It's located in a cute small town. It's under our budget, has great internet, has a pool, a fridge, a microwave, and the owners are extremely nice.
Plus there was a car show here this morning about two blocks away, so a ton of people with ridiculously nice cars stayed here last night, so we got a nice little preview of the show in our own parking lot. haha.


Tomorrow, after Church, we are headed to a cute cottage bed an breakfast with a hot tub in the middle of nowhere Kansas :)
We will be there for 3 days!!
I am very excited.
Thanks for your prayers dear loved ones.

DjO