On Wed. Sept. 18th, two days before we had to take Jon to the airport on his second trip to South Sudan, we had two options to take Jon and his four duffle bags of donated items and one of personal belongings to the airport on Friday. Our van had died the month before and God had faithfully provided various options to get us wherever we needed to go and we had not missed a venturing out since we lost our van. Later that morning, I found out we could not use my sister's car b/c my mom's car was going into the shop for repair on Friday. Later on Wed., our friends who weekly left their car here for us to use Thursday thru Monday let us know they had to take their car back to Maine for the weekend. So I was simply going to let folks know via email, that we needed help getting Jon to the airport Friday morning, but I suddenly felt strongly that we should not share our need and just ask God.
Later, Wed. evening, I was tempted to let folks know, I even composed an email, but before I could push "send", I felt strongly that I should not send it, & to LOOK TO GOD ALONE!
Thursday morning after Roger left for work and Jon and Em left for the last day of working at the organic farm, some one came to the door!……………… and it was Josh!!!
(who is stationed about 6 hours away at Fort Drum) I screamed and cried, and I could not believe my eyes!!! Then it took me about 10 minutes to realize that Josh was our ride to the airport!!! So while I was composing that email the night before, Josh was actually on his way to surprise us!!
Here is his story:
On Tuesday, Josh realized that it was possible that he would not see Jon for at least 11 months and could be longer, since when Josh returns from Afghanistan, Jon could be spending months in Africa again. Since he had not put in for a pass a week ahead as required, he thought of getting off work as early as possible on Thursday, driving 6 hours home to spend a couple of hours here and driving back to report on Friday am. He pitched this to his sergeant who suggested he still try to put in for a pass. So they submitted it Tuesday night. Hopeful, Josh looked into getting a rental car in town, but there were none available! So he looked into an on base rental, but the cheapest was $400 and Josh only had $300 to his name, so he waited. On Wed. around noon, a friend told Josh that if he got a pass, he could use their car! Later Wed., he was at a platoon meeting and his sergeant was assigning him work for Thursday and Friday and he thought to himself, "I did not get the pass." The next thing he knows is that his sergeant is yelling at him, saying, "Lueken!!! Get out of here! Go home! I don't want to see your face!" Josh was stunned and wasn't sure what to think & his other sergeant said, "Do you want me to make you low crawl all the way to the parking lot?" So he ran out of there, gathered his things, got the vehicle and was off and on his way at the same time I was composing the email to let folks know we had a need of a ride. He did not tell us he was coming as he wanted to surprise us, so he contacted my brother, Jeff, who lives next door. He arrived very late while we were in bed and stayed at their house till morning, when he wandered over to our house, giving me the shock of my life!
I said to Roger that a million dollars and a limousine ride would not be as great as having Josh with us and all going the airport together as a family!! God is so good! and He sees and knows our need! Even when there is a simple human solution to meet our needs, waiting on Him first is far better!! I often need to recall this to mind as the children of Israel did.
"I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all Your works and
consider what Your hands have done."
Psalm 143:5
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