Heaven Sent Sentiments

Hello, my friends! Wow, we are already past the middle of June! I pray your month has been filled with blessings, hope, and most importantly God because He is love, mercy, truth, holiness, and faithfulness. He is a good, good Father.

The month of June has been very chaotic for me and a lot of things have been taking place. Some good and some difficult. The amazing thing is that through each situation, I have been able to have JOY and peace in spite of each circumstance.

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                Last weekend, was our first full weekend camping in our new (used) travel trailer. We didn’t travel too far from home, only 111 miles away. It rained the whole weekend, which living in Washington state, could be expected.

However, the weekend went like this:

Friday night:  Two hours into the evening, around 9 p.m., we completely lost power. It was pouring rain, with a capital P. Since we were new to the trailer camping thing, we didn’t figure out what was wrong until morning. 😦

Saturday: After my husband woke up, he figured out what happened. Power surge last night, the trailer blew a fuse. He looked through all of our extra fuses to fix it. Unfortunately, we had multiples of every other fuse but the right one.

He drove our truck out to the nearest city to buy fuses, a travel trailer surge protector, and anything else he could think of to fix our current situation. He left at 8am.

Hours, yes hours, go by and my daughters and I make the most of the time by playing games, hanging out under the canopy with our German Sheppard, and simply resting.

Around 11 a.m., my husband gets back and tells me he has a story to tell. In my mind, I felt like he was saying, “But wait, there’s more!?”

He set various bags down on the picnic table and preceded to tell me what my heart already knew: another problem.

“The truck radiator is busted. I realized it on the way to town and had to stop. So, I not only bought the supplies to fix the trailer, I bought the things I thought we’d need to “mend” the truck to get us home tomorrow.”

Wow, ok. God is big and God is good. Several miles and several stores were needed, but my husband fixed the trailer and the power was back on! Praise God!

We made the most of the day by going on several hikes near Mt. St. Helens National Park, barbequing steaks on the grill, and making s’mores. Perfect ending to a not-so-perfect day!

Sunday:  Woke up to a rainy day. Made eggs, turkey sausage, and monkey bread for breakfast. Oh and coffee, lots of coffee! We rested for a while and decided to head out around noon.

Through the rain, we worked hard to get the trailer and truck packed up and ready to go. After I pulled in the slide to the travel trailer, my daughter noticed we had a flat tire on the trailer.

As if on cue and while I was telling my husband, it started to rain hard. I grabbed the biggest umbrella we had and held it over him as he replaced the tire with a spare. Our only spare.

Sunday 12:30pm: Finally we are on our way! I told my husband there was a restaurant down the road that I wanted to stop at for lunch and he thought that was a good idea.

The place we were stopping was only twenty miles down the road. We pulled into the gas station that was near the restaurant. While my husband was topping off the gas tank, he told me to take the girls inside, find a place to sit and order food for all of us.

Twenty minutes go by and he joins us. Bad news. The spare tire he just replaced is now flat. Praise God we stopped! He bought Fix-a-Flat and prayed it would work to get us home. Only 91 miles to go.

About five miles in, a truck signals to my husband that we have a flat tire. Apparently, the “band-aid” we used to fix it didn’t work. We pulled off and into Denny’s parking lot. My husband spoke to the manager and asked if we could unhook our trailer, and leave it there, so we could find a tire store to get two new tires. They agreed.

The only place that could help us was Wal-Mart. Praise GOD they had two tires left that would fit our trailer. Two hours later we were able to get our trailer and get back on the road. Yay!

Sunday 3:30pm: Unfortunately, the rest of the way home is full of hills and inclines. Our radiator does not go more than a few miles at a time without needing us to pull over. To make a long story short this happens every few miles and several times, but Praise God we made it off the freeway every time and into a parking lot. Three hours go by of driving, stopping, cooling the engine, and getting back on the road. It became obvious that we needed extra help.

Sunday 6:30 pm: We pulled off the freeway and called our friend, Dan. My husband and Dan worked out the following plan: Dan would use his truck to pull our trailer and without the weight of the trailer, our truck should make it home. We are still about 60 miles from home, so it would take Dan about an hour to get to us.

After Dan arrives, we set the plan in motion. Steve drives the truck home. Dan, my daughters and I follow Steve in Dan’s truck and our travel trailer.

Sunday 9:00pm: Praise God, we are finally home!! There were no other problems with the truck or trailer! I have never felt so incredibly blessed and thankful to be home, safe.

Let me tell you that was a long day. However, God’s presence surrounded us in a way that, by human standards, is unexplainable. I truly experienced a supernatural peace and Joy that can only come from God. I knew, beyond any doubt, no matter what happened, God was with us.

Philippians 4:6-7 New Living Translation (NLT)

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I was also so incredibly thankful that we were all together and God was at the center of it all. My daughters, husband, and I will carry this testimony of God’s faithfulness in our hearts and minds forever and it will help us through other trials. ALL the glory to God!!

Friends, God is ready and able to help you through ALL you are going through. I was reminded in my “Jesus Calling” devotional, dated November 11th, about the power of Jesus:

“Do not let any set of circumstances intimidate you. The more challenging your day, the more of My Power I place at your disposal. I know what each of your days will contain, and I empower you accordingly. Look to Me for all that you need, and watch to see what I will do. As your day, so shall your strength be” (Young, Sarah 330).

Don’t wait, pray, and go all into the power of Jesus! Experience peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, gentleness, and faithfulness.

Remember, there is Thereispower Click to hear the song!

Oh, and by the way, I asked the girls if they wanted to go camping again. They said, “Yes!” However, it just occurred to me that they didn’t say that it would be with us….

May God bless you!

Shanon

• Image “Welcome Summer, Hello June” by  CoverLayout.
• Image “Peace is not the absence of storms…” by JenniferDukesLee.com
•  Young, Sarah. “Jesus Calling Devotional” Thomas Nelson publisher. 2014.
• “Philippians 4:6-7.” New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

• “There is Power” by Lincoln Brewster. Oxygen album. August 7, 2014.