It wasn’t my intention, but we put in a very long driving day beginning our ministry trip heading West. My initial plan was to drive to Fort Stockton, Texas and spend the night there, but by the time we were getting into that area, it was still relatively early in the day, so I decided to keep on going. This is the very reason why I don’t make a lot of RV Park reservations; I want to keep our options open and stop wherever the Lord leads us to stop; whether it is a shorter distance than planned, or much farther as we did on our first day. By the time we finally pulled over for the evening, we were in Las Cruses, New Mexico; we called it an evening and pulled into a Walmart parking lot to spend the night.
One of the main reasons that I pulled over when I did was because we were having some challenges with our refrigerator. We often have our refrigerator running while we are on the road, utilizing the propane option that we have, put for some reason, we were having to hit the reset multiple times, and before you know it, we were hearing the “beeping” sound that indicated a problem. After multiple attempts to restart the fridge, I just decided to turn it off. We had a fridge full of food, so I didn’t want to go too long without addressing the issue. I had experienced this previously, so fortunately I had an idea of what I needed to do to remedy the situation. Once we finally pulled into the Walmart parking lot and got the rig leveled and shut down, I pulled out my toolbox and I was in “refrigerator repairman” mode. I had to do the repair from outside of the coach in the refrigerator access panel. Essentially, I had to open the control panel and “jump start” the fridge with a wire on the control board. Praise God for the “how to” sheet that I had on my iPad from my previous encounter with this same issue. Thank the Lord, I was able to get the refrigerator dilemma resolved just before it started getting dark outside. Once the fridge was back in working order, it wasn’t long, and my phone rang, we quickly transitioned into “ministry mode”.
Some friends of ours were experiencing struggles in their marriage; we had been ministering to them during their challenging times, so the husband gave me a call and I began sharing with him. Before you know it, Adriene’s phone was ringing; yes, it was the wife. I was inside speaking with the husband, Adriene was outside speaking with the wife. It wasn’t a good night for them, but we are so grateful that God had us in place at the right time to intercede on their behalf. We have found out that ministry opportunities often present themselves when we make ourselves available for service. I also took the opportunity that evening to introduce myself to a couple truck drivers that were spending the night in the Walmart parking lot as well. During my interactions with truck drivers, I usually will use the common bond of spending a lot of time on the road, and not in the “church” environment on the weekends as my way of starting a conversation with them that they can relate to. As I did on this occasion, I introduced them to our ministry and our desire to share the love of Jesus as we traveled. They were busy with their trucks, but they were receptive, so I gave them each one of our cards and blessed their travels.
Most of our interactions with truck drivers are during our fueling stops. It takes quite a while for “truckers” to fill their fuel tanks, so I will often take the opportunity to “plant a seed”. I also leave a card at all of the fuel pumps that we use along the way, as we did earlier in the day.
It was kind of funny; as I was standing in the parking lot, I noticed a guy sitting on the curb with his dog at the neighboring hotel parking lot; I “assumed” he was homeless. I went to our “stash” of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) that we keep in our storage bay, and grabbed a bottle of water to take to the “homeless” man. The funny thing is that by time I was heading over to bless him with some food and water, I looked over and he was just sitting there waiting for someone to come out of the hotel. He and his dog, jumped in his pickup with his friend and they drove off. One thing I learned through that is that when you have a desire to be a blessing, everything and everybody looks like an opportunity.
We made a quick trip into the Walmart to pick up a couple things, then we came back out and settled down for the evening. I was a long travel day, but we were well on our way.
One of the main reasons that I pulled over when I did was because we were having some challenges with our refrigerator. We often have our refrigerator running while we are on the road, utilizing the propane option that we have, put for some reason, we were having to hit the reset multiple times, and before you know it, we were hearing the “beeping” sound that indicated a problem. After multiple attempts to restart the fridge, I just decided to turn it off. We had a fridge full of food, so I didn’t want to go too long without addressing the issue. I had experienced this previously, so fortunately I had an idea of what I needed to do to remedy the situation. Once we finally pulled into the Walmart parking lot and got the rig leveled and shut down, I pulled out my toolbox and I was in “refrigerator repairman” mode. I had to do the repair from outside of the coach in the refrigerator access panel. Essentially, I had to open the control panel and “jump start” the fridge with a wire on the control board. Praise God for the “how to” sheet that I had on my iPad from my previous encounter with this same issue. Thank the Lord, I was able to get the refrigerator dilemma resolved just before it started getting dark outside. Once the fridge was back in working order, it wasn’t long, and my phone rang, we quickly transitioned into “ministry mode”.
Some friends of ours were experiencing struggles in their marriage; we had been ministering to them during their challenging times, so the husband gave me a call and I began sharing with him. Before you know it, Adriene’s phone was ringing; yes, it was the wife. I was inside speaking with the husband, Adriene was outside speaking with the wife. It wasn’t a good night for them, but we are so grateful that God had us in place at the right time to intercede on their behalf. We have found out that ministry opportunities often present themselves when we make ourselves available for service. I also took the opportunity that evening to introduce myself to a couple truck drivers that were spending the night in the Walmart parking lot as well. During my interactions with truck drivers, I usually will use the common bond of spending a lot of time on the road, and not in the “church” environment on the weekends as my way of starting a conversation with them that they can relate to. As I did on this occasion, I introduced them to our ministry and our desire to share the love of Jesus as we traveled. They were busy with their trucks, but they were receptive, so I gave them each one of our cards and blessed their travels.
Most of our interactions with truck drivers are during our fueling stops. It takes quite a while for “truckers” to fill their fuel tanks, so I will often take the opportunity to “plant a seed”. I also leave a card at all of the fuel pumps that we use along the way, as we did earlier in the day.
It was kind of funny; as I was standing in the parking lot, I noticed a guy sitting on the curb with his dog at the neighboring hotel parking lot; I “assumed” he was homeless. I went to our “stash” of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) that we keep in our storage bay, and grabbed a bottle of water to take to the “homeless” man. The funny thing is that by time I was heading over to bless him with some food and water, I looked over and he was just sitting there waiting for someone to come out of the hotel. He and his dog, jumped in his pickup with his friend and they drove off. One thing I learned through that is that when you have a desire to be a blessing, everything and everybody looks like an opportunity.
We made a quick trip into the Walmart to pick up a couple things, then we came back out and settled down for the evening. I was a long travel day, but we were well on our way.
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