The Flood

Ministry Update

We have had a wonderful day in northern VA, despite the adverse events of the night before. The Lord gave us three wonderful services today with at least two responding at the invitation to salvation in the morning service.

Family Update

We closed our meeting in Blackstone VA, on Friday night, and hit the road Saturday. We left just before noon, so we did not expect to get in to Alexandria VA until around 5 PM that evening. It was a nice drive, and though the leaves have passed their peak, it was still rather pretty to see the muted tones of the fall leaves all around us.

We had a slightly difficult time getting to the church, since our directions were not totally clear, but other than a few terrorized motorists, no one was hurt. I have a few more white hairs, but that, too, is inconsequential. It is very disheartening to be driving along, and realize that you just passed the road on which you were supposed to turn. For those of you that don’t know, Alexandria is a suburb of Washington, DC. Big city made for small cars, not large trailers. We turned around in a very small parking lot, and made our way back to the road. This was after we had taken the wrong road and had to turn around in a drug store parking lot full of cars. Yikes! Through all of this, Paul and I were amazed that only one person honked at us. I can’t remember what our honk record is, but one just doesn’t cut it – unless, of course, it is a full minute long. This was just a short one.

When we reached the church, it was growing dark, so we had to work fast to get set up. I believe if the Bible had been written in this day and age, it would read something like this: “It is easier for an evangelist to park his trailer in the church parking lot than it is for a rich man to enter into heaven.” The parking lot, in this case, was plenty big, but it was set up like an obstacle course with buses, church vans, and basketball goals (that had been marked by at least one other evangelist’s trailer) scattered all over it. Let me say that you have never truly learned the meaning of “back and forth” until you try to park an RV. Anyway, while Paul put several miles on the truck, I stood out in the cold and waved him around, easing the trailer back between a bus and the hapless basketball goal. That feat accomplished, I plucked out a few more white hairs, and hopped back in the truck to wait for the pastor. We had no power until he came, because the plug was in a locked shed. We found out later that he was working on his car when we called and left threatening phone messages. The rest of the night went pretty well – normal Saturday night routines…baths, ironing, etc. It has been rather cold the last several nights, so to keep our water from freezing, we have to keep it running all night. That was the last sound we heard as we collapsed into bed.

Paul came in this morning, and asked me if I was cognizant. “Mhm, mhm mhh. Mhm?” I answered. For those of you who are morning people, and do not know the language of the non-morning people, this is interpreted, “Yes, I am. Why?” He then proceeded to tell me that the trailer was flooded. As you can imagine, I was instantly awake and out of bed. Sure enough, the living room carpet went “Squish, squish” when you walked on it. Someone forgot to pull out the plug on the gray water tank. Consequently, after four baths and a trickle of water running in the sink all night, the tank overflowed – into the trailer. First it filled up the kitchen sinks, then ran over onto the kitchen floor, and from there it proceeded to soak into the carpet in the kid’s room and the living room. In the providence of God, the trailer was not quite level, so it all ran to one side, and down into the slideout where it eventually drained onto the ground. I surveyed the damage, and immediately set to work trying to mop it up. All I had was eight large bath towels, and when they were all wet, I just had to let it go. We got ready for church as usual, and had a great morning service. After lunch at the pastor’s house, we headed back to the trailer. Thankfully, one of the church members loaned us a carpet cleaning machine, and we were able to get about another gallon of water out of the living room carpet. What a day! The funny thing was, I felt prompted to ask Paul last night if the gray water tank was open, but dismissed it as silly, since he always remembers. I guess that was the Lord trying to make our day go a little smoother. Anyway, we are thankful for the little blessings – the trailer being unlevel so that only one half of it was wet, no water went down into the register vents, and nothing was sitting on the floor to be ruined. The carpet will soon dry, and it had an extra rinse from the last cleaning it had (which, I might add, was not the best job, despite my doing it).

We are looking forward to this evening’s service, and to doing a little sightseeing while here in our nation’s capital this week. It will be Josiah’s first field trip, and I think it will be enjoyable.