Let me begin with this (bear with me...if I stray too far) I have a best friendv(Melinda). She is amazing. I love her very much. We have had a few occasions to be out in "the middle of nowhere" (a truly beautiful place to be). And, without fail, we have found ourselves in the humbling position to call out to Jesus for help.
The cliffs notes versions of previous occasions (remember your supposed to be bearing with me)
First Mommy and Me camp trip: The pop-up tent would not pop-up. We spent HOURS in the desert "fiddling" with the blasted thing to no avail. FINALLY (truly, we were out of options) we humbly sought out the guidance of the Lord, and He delivered! A sweet man and his equally sweet wife just "happened" to get a flat tire within a stones throw of us...needless to say that sweet man was quite handily able to fix the tent...God is good!
Melinda and Syd trip to McGown Peak: This was a backpacking trip. After a very very late start we found ourselves off trail (the severity of just how "off trail" we were is dependent on who is telling the story, to avoid over-embellishing I will leave it at...we were off trail) after bushwacking for many hours (again the exact amount of hours depends on who your talking to) we again found ourselves crying out for deliverance...and miraculously we were able to find the trail within minutes! (This was also the trip that it rained and rained and rained and rained!)
This weekend: Previously I had taken Porter with me on the Mommy and Me weekend, this time around it was Ollie's turn. We headed out (Melinda and her little one and me and Ollie) for Succor Creek in Oregon. It is a lovely desert canyon known for its thunder eggs and gem hunting! It was a truly lovely time, the weather during the day was great (although the nights were pretty cold). Melinda and I were talking about how through the whole first part of our trip we were notably without disaster, and maybe our streak had been broken. The conversation had barely happened, the last words hardly spoken when disaster HIT! Along the roadside above our campground we saw a little Kia pull around the corner and stop...they parked on the road for quite some time and then VERY slowly the inched their car onto the little "driveway" of our campsite. We assumed that they were going to st-up their camp at the mouth of our little campsite driveway, we watched as the unloaded the back of their Kia, and then went about our business. We were fixing dinner "Chicken and Beans" (a true camp food work of art). The beans has been brought to a boil and turned down to cool...but more about that in a minute.
We had long since forgotten about our new neighbors when we spied a woman, very quickly moving towards us. We looked at the woman for a moment, and then realized that she was frantic! She asked us if we could help her, their car had a flat tire, and more importantly then that her husband had only about an hour of oxygen left...she was quite upset. Melinda and I looked at eachother and assured her that we would do the best that we could. We walked with this woman to their car were her husband was waiting. We soon realized how tragic the situation was when we learned that they had no jack, no tools, and no way to change the tire. And the hour left of oxygen was growing shorter by.the.minute. We got the jack and spare from Melinda's Caravan hoping the lug pattern would fit...it didn't. We wrenched and wrenched on the mechanism that held the tire in place under the Kia (To release the tire from underneath requires a special tool). I think that we must have worked for about 45 minutes before we recognized that we had reached the end of what we could do on our own, we prayed. We joined hands with our new friends, and together the four of us prayed. Often the "what" that you pray for is almost not as important as the act of praying itself (or at least we might think so) but in this instance the "what" WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT! We prayed that the lord would send us a helper, someone with the right tool to fix the problem, we prayed for more minutes of oxygen and we thanked the Lord for bringing us all together. We said "amen." We lifted our heads Melinda and I made eye contact and decided that she would need to load up our new friends (obviously I am withholding their names...you still bearing with me?) and make the 30-45 minute drive into Nyssa to seek medical attention. The gentleman was having more and more difficulty (although he has a smile and laugh that would belie his struggles). Melinda and this sweet couple loaded into the van and headed off down the dirt road for town...I stayed behind with the kids. It was time for dinner...
And now back to the Chicken and Beans...well there wasn't any Chicken and Beans. While our backs were turned my dog Zeke ate them all...every single bean husk and Chicken shard...all gone...every bit...he didn't even share! We had pb&j.
About 10 minutes had passed (if your are doing the math we are WELL over the hours worth of oxygen...God is good.) when down that same dirt road I saw that same silver van returning. Obviously they had not gone to Nyssa. I headed back to see what was happening. THE LORD HAD SENT US A HELPER! As Melinda and Company were heading into town Melinda (obviously moved by the Holy Spirit) pulled into a neighboring campsite to see if someone had a tool, or an idea about how to get the tire fixed (while happy to do it the logistics of taking this sweet couple to town, in the hopes of finding medical assistance in Nyssa Oregon, and then getting their flat tire fixed, and then returning to the campsite was fairly complicated). The helper they found in the neighboring campsite was Jim, a fellow Middletonian (We Middletonites are a pretty hardy bunch!), and an employee of a transportation company...and he had a HUGE toolbox in his RV...and he was HAPPY to help...GOD IS SO GOOD! So Jim went right to work, he crawled under the Kia to take a look...I don't know if he even got a tool fully on the tire, or exactly what happened at this point because I wasn't under the car...but that tire fell. That tire fell right on Jim's face...the thud was sickening. Jim crawled out from under that Kia with a bloody nose and a black tire mark across his forehead. At this point I would just like to take a moment to reflect...I had just been under that car...I had just been wrenching with all my strength on that tire mechanism, and so had Melinda. GOD IS SO SO SO GOOD!
Well Jim was fine, a little scratch on his nose and a marvelous disposition (we know he was fine because he came back by our campsite with his lovely wife the next morning). Melinda and I finished changing the tire and our lovely couple went on their way...presumably to the nearest medical facility(his hour's worth of oxygen had now sustained him far beyond that).
So God DOES answer prayers! God makes one hours worth of oxygen last far beyond that! God protects us (anyone up for a broken nose)! AND GOD LOVES US!
Anyone want to camping with me and Melinda...an experience to be remembered is GUARANTEED!
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