"If the Arizona trip were made into a movie, it would most definitely be a musical"-- Evan McElrath, Saturday Version

Day Six, Saturday--"Sing, Sing, Sing"- Chris Tomlin
 

     Phew-- the last day.

     This was to be the day when I just laid it all out there for the Lord to handle.

     Late on Friday night, I found a tire store near Phoenix (about 90 miles away) that had tires for the truck.  So we decided that I was going to pack all of the gear I could stow into the truck, then head out before breakfast down to Phoenix.  Hopefully the timing would work out and I could just join the van as it passed by later.
     And that is exactly what happened.  We got up and started packing the truck with our gear, and I helped clean up around the church for a while.  Then it was time to part ways.  We said a short prayer, and I headed out.
     You see, those 90 miles were through the mountains we had driven through on the way here, and there was little to no phone reception until the last 15 miles or so.  So if I ran into trouble along the way, it was going to be bad.  And with a donut spare and a tire with a large screw in it, there was nothing I could do except rely on God.  Oh yeah, did I tell you that I could actually hear the screw tapping the asphault as it hit on every turn of the tire?  The devil was still trying to make me despair, but at this point that was a feeble attempt.
   So I took a cue from the Israelites when God gave them Jericho.  I didn't try to fight, I just praised God for the miracle that He was going to perform for me.  I rolled my window down, turned up the music, and shouted praise to the Lord for the next hour and a half.  And it worked.  Faith does work.
    It was going to take about an hour for the tire replacement, so I waited with baited breath for the rest of the group to catch up.  According to the timetable, they should have caught up while I was still waiting.  But they never showed.  And I knew that there was no reception in the mountains, so I kept waiting.  And waiting.
    Right about the time I was ready to head back towards Globe to find the group, they texted that they were out of the mountains.  Turns out they had left a bunch of Tory's stuff in the van, and they had to turn around 1/2 an hour out of Globe to get it back to them.
    The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.  Terry  rode with Zach, Evan, Kaitlin and I on the way to Blythe, and we had some awesome conversation playing 21 questions.  In Blythe, four of us acted like we were in a  car and tried to act our way through the drive-thru at Taco Bell.  It was a mediocre fail, but we had a great time acting out the parts.
   We made it home the rest of the way on a mix of Disney songs and Evan's ipod.  It made for a good soundtrack for the way home.
   When we got home, it was a pleasant surprise to see Christine and Matt waiting for us at the church.  I had really missed them, and wished more than anything that they could have experienced it with us.

    So today's lesson was faith.  Jesus said "ask as if you have already received," and that was what I had to do.  I was so thankful and full of praise, knowing that the Lord was going to take care of us.  And sure enough, He did.  Faith.  What more can I say?