Ok so I'll be telling the story of our Faith Walk in parts. I really only have time to blog about one part of it today. In the next few days or so it will end up being quite long. I hope you read, enjoy, and are inspired by what how good God is. So here we go...
Saturday Morning 4am- Yes, 4am that's nuts right! Ha! My alarm was set for 4:30 but I was so pumped about Faith Walk I could hardly sleep. All night I couldn't think about anything else but Faith Walk and even when I was sleeping I was dreaming about it. My assigned team included Elyse, Kaitlin, Chad, and John. We took off in the van and about an hour or two later we stopped. And yes indeed it was in the STICKS! Straight nothing, middle of nowhere, no man's land, whatever other country name you can think of I assure you this was it. Both teams had to get off the bus then Lauren and I had to play rock-paper-scissors. Now at this moment we did not know which result would lead us to staying in the middle of nowhere. I was kind of hoping the winner's team would get put back on the bus and taken somewhere else. I was wrong... I won... and we definitely had to stay in the sticks. Well the van took off and there we were 5 young people, bookbags, no food, No waterbottle for me because I left it at home, one change of clothes, and a cross. Of course we ended up stopping at a 4 way stop (on a gravel road) so we immediately had to decide which way to go... north, south, east, or west. We decided to head east.
Saturday 10am- We are still walking east down this very LONG gravel road. Besides the very few people that have passed us, and the goats, cows, and horses, we have seen no one. By this time we've stopped and had our fire time (a.k.a. - talkin' with Jesus). And neither one us feels like we had an certain revelation from God as to where to go and what to do. We continue to head east until way far off we thought perhaps it was a stop sign. Now don't make fun. This stop sign meant people actually drive on this road so you can imagine our excitement. We go close enough to tell that it was most certainly a stop sign and even better we could see a paved road. We started screaming we we're so happy AND tired of walking on this gravel "no man's land" of a road. Anyways, Elyse and I ran up to the paved road and kissed it!! I'm so serious right now. We actually did kiss it. It had double yellow lines, this meant that it was a some what busy road. Which means PEOPLE! Praise Jesus! PEOPLE. I LOVE PEOPLE!
Saturday 12pm- Ok about this time we are coming up on a very small town called Glencoe. We went into the only store there which is a small gas station. We were believing for big things to happen in this gas station. Food, shelter, a ride to another town, really anything would have helped. We didn't get any of those things BUT we were able to pray with the people that worked there for their families which was cool. We started walking again. It took us about 2 minutes to be out of the town we were in and so we kept on for the next town.
Ok time out- I know I'm being very detailed. Perhaps it's boring for you to be reading my story with such detail. However, I am writing this for me as well. I want to be able to look back and remember how God got us through from moment to moment. Life will continue to be a "Faith Walk." I want to have recorded how He got me through my first official one. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read. I shall continue...
Saturday 1pm- For awhile as we were walking we sang worship song, after worship song. It was really good! Praising God through the challenges in life is always the best way to go. The farther we went the harder it got. The more difficult it was to keep my mind right. I started to think things like..."We've been walking forever and we've accomplished nothing"..."God, have I not prayed enough?"..."Have I not spoke in tongues enough?"..."Have I not read your word enough?"..."Have we missed you as to where to go?" At this point the team stopped singing for a little bit and this was when my mind just flooded with all of these thoughts. I continued to sing. I'm pretty sure I sang every worship song I could remember. For just a moment I thought maybe my team was getting annoyed with my constant singing... then I started to think negatively again so I kept singing anyways. ;) (I did find out later they were all grateful for my singing, so it ended up being really good.) Though none of us and even complained once we all could tell that we were all getting a bit discouraged. I mean we had been walking for about for hours now. Chad would hardly let anyone of us carry the cross at all so he carried it nearly this whole time. Finally, we all agreed that we we're tired and we really just needed to take a nice break. We spread out on the side of the road to rest. We spoke with our director (yes, we did have a cell phone but it was for emergency usage only and to communicate with the director.) He told us how the rest of the teams were doing and all of them had something happen already. All of the teams were offered meals already and rides. This did not help with our discouragement at all. For just a moment I thought about all the doubts and then I was just tired of my thoughts and laid down to sleep.
Saturday 2pm- "HOOONK!" Oh yes, FINALLY, a car stopped to offer us a ride!!!!!!!!! We were thrilled.
Ha! Sorry to end on that note but I must be going now. I will continue the story very soon. I promise it's a happy ending! ;)
To be continued...
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