And Then….

New Years Day we ventured off to a beach that some friends of our had recommended.  It was a beautiful beach with not a single other person on the beach.

And then….

as we were turning around to park the van got stuck in the sand.  Half of the back wheel was buried in the sand and all we had with us were the toys we had brought to play with on the beach.  One minute we were in paradise and the next minute we were stuck in the desert sands of Africa.  So began 2 and half hours of digging, piling up rocks and branches under the wheels, moving the car a little and then digging again.  The time would have been longer, but God sent an angel our way.  A village man who was walking home with his fish that he had just caught, saw our situation and came to help.  He had a machete that was way more effective at digging than the Frisbee we were using.

I had two hours of walking around looking for rocks to think.  During that time I realized some of the growth our family has made this past year.  Here we were on vacation and suddenly our day was anything but relaxing.  Yet no one complained and everyone jumped right to work.  We didn’t know how we were going to get out of the sand, but we knew that it was up to us to do something and that God would somehow get us through it.  This past year we have often learned things by stumbling into sand traps and where we had to just dig and trust God to help us out.  This is not a naturally easy thing for me as I don’t handle chaos and unknowns very well.  Yet through a lot of repetition and trials, we now have the peace of just knowing that God will get us through it.  It doesn’t make the digging in the heat any easier.  It doesn’t make the hour of work with no results less discouraging.   But it does allow us to look around when we are done with our work and enjoy the paradise… and that we did!