We were up and about, getting an “early” start on our travel day. Once we got ourselves situated, I went outside to take a look around to ensure that everything was OK around the rig. We have never had an issue with staying in Walmart parking lots, but we know that we always have to be “prayerful and careful”. While I was outside, I noticed that there was another motorhome that had pulled in and parked for the night. It was certainly not a campground, but RVers have this certain camaraderie that surpasses specific locations. It was still early, and no-one was outside of that motorhome, but I quietly walked over and slipped one of our ministry cards in the edge of their door opening. Maybe, we will see them one day on the road, but for now, we just planted a seed.
We got us a little breakfast and we were about ready to get back on the road. As I walked around our rig making final checks, one of the truck drivers from the night prior was pulling off. I knew without a “shadow of a doubt”, that truck driver had visited our website; as he drove by, he gave a big smile and initiated a wave that is not customary from truckers to RVers. His countenance had changed. My prayer was that the love of Jesus Christ has penetrated his heart; maybe I will see him again one day and he will remind me of our encounter.
We got back on the road about 8:30, heading West on I-10 towards Arizona. That was some beautiful country driving through New Mexico and in to Arizona. There was a lot of “nothingness”, but there was also plenty to see of God’s handiwork. I kept telling Adriene to grab the camera and take a picture, she would say “Take a picture of what?”, and I would just point “that way”. I would say, “Yes I know, we have been this way before, but right now, I don’t know what we got a picture of last time”.
It was a very nice travel day making our way through Tucson, Arizona, and in to the Phoenix area. Since we were planning to stay in the area for a few days, I had made a prior reservation at Destiny Phoenix RV Park in Goodyear, Arizona. It is on the outskirts of Phoenix, and not too far from Adriene’s sister in Avondale. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we drove much further than expected for day one, so we had actually arrived in Arizona a day earlier than expected. I asked Adriene to call the campground and see if we could come in a day early; they said “no problem, come on in”. Typically, if it is not the prime summer season, most campgrounds will have some openings, so last minute “drop-ins”, or early arrivals in our case, are usually not a problem. Our campground wasn’t to far off of I-10, so we hit a couple main thoroughfares and before we knew it, we were pulling into Destiny Phoenix, off of Citrus Boulevard. As we pulled in, it appeared that we made a good decision with this park, it looked pretty nice. Some campgrounds use “creative photography” in their advertising, but this one made a great first impression.
I pulled up beside the office, and went in to get us checked-in. The receptionist was having a bit of a challenge finding my reservation; come to find out, their online reservation system was not “talking” to the front desk system, so I had to go back out to the rig and get my reservation number to “help her out”. Once I gave that to her, we were good to go after she re-input our reservation into their “new system”. While she was getting us checked-in, I asked her if there was any type of Church Services available at the campsite. She said that their was a Pastor and wife actually in the campground that conducted services there, but she wasn’t certain if they were in town or not. I shared with her about our ministry and gave her one of our cards; , she got really excited. She actually got on the phone while I was checking in to call the Pastor so that we could get in contact with him; she ended up having to leave a message and informing him that we were in the park, and the campsite that we would be staying in. She also gave us their campsite number, so that we could go and stop by. Come to find out, that Pastor and wife were from a small village in Alaska (hmmm); they were ministering in Alaska until they came to Arizona. I was thinking to myself, “OK God, this looks like a setup”. I asked the receptionist if I could bring some of our ministry cards by to leave at the office for the inbound campground guests; she said “absolutely”. We were soon making our way to our campsite (#252) off of “Tomahawk” street.
After we got all setup, I was eager to touch base with the local campground Pastor, so I headed over the their site to see if we could make arrangements to help them with service that weekend. Well, they were not home at the time so I left one of our cards in the side of their door, and hoped that they would get in touch with us later on. It wasn’t too long and we made contact with Adriene’s sister Crystal; she came over to the campground to meet up with us and take us over to her house for dinner. She lives about 10 miles from where we were staying. I grabbed a small stack of cards to take to the front office, but when we passed by there, we found that the office was already closed for the day, so I planned on stoping by in the morning to drop the cards off. Crystal is a foster parent, so on the way to her house, we stopped by one of her friend’s house to pick up her 2 foster kids (Analisa and Su) that were over there for the day; that was our first time meeting them. We then went to her house and enjoyed dinner with her and the kids. We spent the rest of the evening with them before we packed it up and Crystal took us back to the coach to call it a day.
We got us a little breakfast and we were about ready to get back on the road. As I walked around our rig making final checks, one of the truck drivers from the night prior was pulling off. I knew without a “shadow of a doubt”, that truck driver had visited our website; as he drove by, he gave a big smile and initiated a wave that is not customary from truckers to RVers. His countenance had changed. My prayer was that the love of Jesus Christ has penetrated his heart; maybe I will see him again one day and he will remind me of our encounter.
We got back on the road about 8:30, heading West on I-10 towards Arizona. That was some beautiful country driving through New Mexico and in to Arizona. There was a lot of “nothingness”, but there was also plenty to see of God’s handiwork. I kept telling Adriene to grab the camera and take a picture, she would say “Take a picture of what?”, and I would just point “that way”. I would say, “Yes I know, we have been this way before, but right now, I don’t know what we got a picture of last time”.
It was a very nice travel day making our way through Tucson, Arizona, and in to the Phoenix area. Since we were planning to stay in the area for a few days, I had made a prior reservation at Destiny Phoenix RV Park in Goodyear, Arizona. It is on the outskirts of Phoenix, and not too far from Adriene’s sister in Avondale. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we drove much further than expected for day one, so we had actually arrived in Arizona a day earlier than expected. I asked Adriene to call the campground and see if we could come in a day early; they said “no problem, come on in”. Typically, if it is not the prime summer season, most campgrounds will have some openings, so last minute “drop-ins”, or early arrivals in our case, are usually not a problem. Our campground wasn’t to far off of I-10, so we hit a couple main thoroughfares and before we knew it, we were pulling into Destiny Phoenix, off of Citrus Boulevard. As we pulled in, it appeared that we made a good decision with this park, it looked pretty nice. Some campgrounds use “creative photography” in their advertising, but this one made a great first impression.
I pulled up beside the office, and went in to get us checked-in. The receptionist was having a bit of a challenge finding my reservation; come to find out, their online reservation system was not “talking” to the front desk system, so I had to go back out to the rig and get my reservation number to “help her out”. Once I gave that to her, we were good to go after she re-input our reservation into their “new system”. While she was getting us checked-in, I asked her if there was any type of Church Services available at the campsite. She said that their was a Pastor and wife actually in the campground that conducted services there, but she wasn’t certain if they were in town or not. I shared with her about our ministry and gave her one of our cards; , she got really excited. She actually got on the phone while I was checking in to call the Pastor so that we could get in contact with him; she ended up having to leave a message and informing him that we were in the park, and the campsite that we would be staying in. She also gave us their campsite number, so that we could go and stop by. Come to find out, that Pastor and wife were from a small village in Alaska (hmmm); they were ministering in Alaska until they came to Arizona. I was thinking to myself, “OK God, this looks like a setup”. I asked the receptionist if I could bring some of our ministry cards by to leave at the office for the inbound campground guests; she said “absolutely”. We were soon making our way to our campsite (#252) off of “Tomahawk” street.
After we got all setup, I was eager to touch base with the local campground Pastor, so I headed over the their site to see if we could make arrangements to help them with service that weekend. Well, they were not home at the time so I left one of our cards in the side of their door, and hoped that they would get in touch with us later on. It wasn’t too long and we made contact with Adriene’s sister Crystal; she came over to the campground to meet up with us and take us over to her house for dinner. She lives about 10 miles from where we were staying. I grabbed a small stack of cards to take to the front office, but when we passed by there, we found that the office was already closed for the day, so I planned on stoping by in the morning to drop the cards off. Crystal is a foster parent, so on the way to her house, we stopped by one of her friend’s house to pick up her 2 foster kids (Analisa and Su) that were over there for the day; that was our first time meeting them. We then went to her house and enjoyed dinner with her and the kids. We spent the rest of the evening with them before we packed it up and Crystal took us back to the coach to call it a day.
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