My husband has been amazing, dealing with the challenges of driving such a large vehicle with a tow vehicle, and doing so for hours on end while being hot and sweaty. He is not without fault and we both have struggled with the tendency to complain or be impatient. But he has persevered and has been a huge blessing to us!
We have only camped two nights since people so graciously offered for us to stay in their homes before that. The first night we set up camp in the dark. We are taking turns sleeping in the tent since there are only 2 beds in the RV and there are 7 of us. Our kids are learning new skills and we are enjoying a new and different life experience. After our first night camping, we all woke early and enjoyed the beauty around us. A friend gave us an art set and the kids enjoyed making use of it.
David took the older two to visit a university, and I stayed at the campground with the younger 3. I was sad to miss the campus tour, but the school had some COVID regulations about visitors. I stayed and tried to take the kids with me on a short hike. Since we were in Jackson, MS, and the mosquitoes were everywhere, we all put on bug spray before walking around. Even after bug spray, we couldn’t get very far without being attacked by mosquitoes. I had gone for a walk in the early morning and seen some beautiful bayous with fascinating cypress trees and wanted my kids to also enjoy the environment. But also, the mosquitoes won and chased us back to the RV.
After the college visit was over, we all loaded up and began the drive toward our next stop. We didn’t know how far we were going to get and looked for a good place to stop along the way to our next college visit. We found Burns Park in North Little Rock and reached before dark. We were much more efficient at setting up the tent since we arrived at the campground in the daylight and we already had figured out some of the tricks. It is a really amazing park and the staff were very helpful. I wished we had longer to stay, but we need to reach the next school by Friday afternoon to do the campus visit before the weekend.
We did go out for an interesting meal at Sharks restaurant in Little Rock. It is a Southern restaurant where everything is fried, okra, onion rings, hush puppies, catfish, frog legs and more! David felt like our kids needed that cross-cultural experience.
We are now on our way to northwest Arkansas to visit John Brown University. We don’t yet have plans where we will stay tonight, but we will figure it out. We hope to address the AC issue before driving through New Mexico and Nevada, but we will see. All the RV repair places I am calling are fully booked. Apparently we are not the only ones taking a trip this summer. We are also not the only ones who need to get some things repaired, on a Friday afternoon.
While complications and changes in plans are not the way we like for things to go, I am growing in my ability to trust that God is working for good in it all. It is easy to complain and feel frustrated when things don’t go as we plan. David recently shared with our home office at Global Outreach that the past years and a half dealing with COVID have continually reminded us of a passage in the book of James.
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.””
James 4:13-15 ESV
So, as we are now moving slowly in traffic, and the day is heating up, I am going to try to make plans for a repair shop and a place to sleep tonight, but I am also going to trust that God will direct our steps. I want to focus more on loving my family and following Jesus than I focus on making my plans work. He knows what we need and He will provide!
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