The Day everything was supposed to happen

May 22nd was a popular day this year, 2010.  At the time that we committed to help with an outreach at GW, we had no idea that anything else would be happening on May 22nd.  As the weeks passed, moving us closer to the date, more and more opportunities and events presented themselves as options for May 22nd -- my sister's wedding, an awesome conference with promise of His presence in amazing proportion, a second graduation ceremony for #1 son and other things that I don't remember.  Instead, we headed up north to help staff an AGLOW conference. 


I was torn about all of this, but knew that I had given my word and that we could not back out of our committment.  We left Friday morning around 9:50, which was about 20 minutes later than I wanted to leave, but we didn't have to be there at any specific time (that I knew of).  We still had to stop at the bank and to get gas before leaving Brookston, so we'd be about 1/2 an hour later than I wanted to be there. 


After filling up the gas tank in the van, I hopped in the driver's seat, relieved to be finally getting on the road.  I turned the key away from me, as everyone knows is the proper way and -- no sound or response.  I tried a couple more times, wondered what I should do, started to call hubby and my cell phone rang.  It was #1 son asking if we had more toothpaste in the house, which I told him we did not have because it was all with us.  After hanging up with him, I darted into the store at the gas station to inform them of our predicatment and that we were in the process of getting it taken care of.  They were very kind and understanding and suggested making certain that the van was "all the way in park."


I checked about being in park (we were) and called hubby.  Unfortunately he had to leave work to come to help us in the end.  He tried to get someone else of the mechanic persuasion to come, but to no avail.  He was fairly certain that it was a bad battery terminal which he had forgotten to have fixed.  The Ford dealership in town had told him that we could bring the van to them to be fixed right away, which is exactly what happened and for not very much money or time spent.  By now we were two hours later than I intended to leave from home -- oh well. 


Since it was raining, I debated about taking 65N or not.  The rain was gentle and only slightly annoying, and the traffic looked reasonable, so we went for it.  Unfortunately the rain picked up and at times was so hard that I struggled to see the road and traffic in front of me.  I finally decided that we would exit at the closest exit possible, which turned out to be the one I had planned on taking before the rain was an issue -- whew.


After talking with my friend and assuring her that we were close, I settled back for the final few miles to her house...we arrived in good time to find that she had not returned from the store...we waited... and waited... and waited... Finally the kids urged me to call her again.  Upon hearing my voice, she asked where I was and then she told me she was at GW.  She had forgotten to tell us her plan once we ended up being later than she had expected.  No problem, we just drove on to GW, finally ate some lunch (now it's 2:30 EST) and were ready to participate. 


It was a superb weekend from that point forward.  We practiced "Give Me Your Eyes" and the song Miss K had planned, ate supper, helped set up and prayed before leaving for J's house.  It was about 10:30 our time when we arrived there.  I finally fell into my cot before midnight our time.  It had been a great day despite the delays.  J had also given me lots of home schooling tips that were very helpful.


The next day didn't fly by as quickly as the day before because we spent a lot of time waiting to be useful.  The girls did a beautiful job in the song, and everyone did a great job staffing the conference.  There was prophetic ministry and worship and wonderful presence!  I had so much fun and just knew that we were right where we were supposed to be.  All of the other things would have been great, but this was the place for us.