God sends us reminders

So, today God sent me a wonderful reminder that I am not in control. You see, I like (okay, I love) to be in control. I have had a summer that has flown by, and a few weeks where life has been hurling by, but still, I was in control (mostly). Yesterday I got back from a 48 hour trip to Manassas, Virginia for my uncle's memorial service. There were some things that I couldn't control on that trip, for example, my circuitous route to the Washington D.C. area. I thought that I was traveling from Dallas to Houston to Washington Dulles. However, on my flight from Houston to Dulles I realized that we had landed too soon and asked my neighbor where we were and when she replied, "Tampa," I just laughed. Then, when I began my uncle's memorial service I realized that there was water obscuring my vision. There have been lots of things to remind me that I am not in control, but today took the cake. I took the kids to school at Oak Lawn UMC while I boarded the church bus with 10 other staff members. We drove an hour southeast of Dallas to Cedar Creek lake where we had a great time planning, sharing, bonding. When it was time to come home, we all loaded up and we were off. For about 30 minutes. And then, we started to smell burning, and then there was smoke, and then we stopped. There was chocolate milk coming out under the church bus and apparently that is not a good thing. There were suspicions that the transmission was broken. Seriously? Last week the transmission went out on my car. Maybe it's me! I'm bad luck with transmissions!

So, David Edwards, our wonderful Building Administrator, called his contacts and a big rig tow truck and a big bus from Buses by Bill was on the way. They would be there in an hour. Which was a miracle because we were just north of Kaufman! That's like 30 minutes from Dallas. So, we stood outside in the shade and the cars speeding by did provide some nice breeze! However, it was 4:40 pm and it was hot! We did have 4 Good Samaritans drive by, though one wanted to talk about how God had a reason for all of this. I replied that maybe the reason was that our church bus was old. We also had another denomination church van drive by, but they seemed to speed up, not slow down and inquire as to how we were... Anyway, two state troopers drove by and didn't even slow down, though one did check us out. Around 5:40 pm, the big rig tow truck arrived. Was he going to take away our cover from the sun? We all seemed to migrate inside the church bus, we weren't going to leave the protection that it provided!

The big rig tow truck driver offered to take us to the shell station one exit up, and then a Good Samaritan came by and so we split up our band of 11 and 4 went with the Good Samaritan and 7 of us fit in the big rig cab. There were 4 of us on the nice man's bed, one laying behind us on the bed, one on the floorboard, and one in the passenger seat. We were rescued! We arrived at the shell station and filled up on ice cream, then we waited for the bus which was apparently now stuck in traffic! He arrived at 6:30 pm, and took us back to the church.

Today was a reminder that I am not in control. Today was a reminder that I married a wonderful man who left work at a moment's notice to pick up the kids from school. Today was a reminder that sometimes, the best thing that you can do is laugh. Today was a reminder that working at a church can be full of unexpected surprises and a whole lot of fun!

To top of the day, I was supposed to meet my wonderful friend Jenny Bailey for dinner tonight at my house at 6:45 pm for a home cooked meal. I didn't get home until 7:20 pm! So, Jenny and I went out to Neighborhood Services and I had to unbutton my pants it was so good!

us on our tow truck driver's bed! Russ (the music director and organist), Michelle (the bookkeeper), Dawn (administrative coordinator), Gregg (outreach minister), me



the poor church bus!