One Wild Trip

This past week I was in St Louis for couple different things. One of which was a fundraiser in Pike County, Ill. This fundraiser was in a small town called Pittsfield. It took us one hour and 45 minutes to get to the fundraiser... Five hours and two minutes to get back. Here is a brief version of our five hour tour, and why I believe God planned it just like He did.
As we were leaving my house in St Lou, my friend Louie Payne wanted to bring his new navigation system to help us for the ride. We already had a nav system in the car but his seemed to be pretty detailed so we let him bring it along. We used the rental cars navigation on the way up to our fundraiser and the trip went very smooth with no hiccups what so ever. While we were at this fundraiser, it was a banquet, we were able to raise $22,000 for our foundation. For a small town banquet we were really excited about that total. Also, while we were there we were able to share our love for Christ and hand out testimony cards to hundreds of people that attended. It was an overall great event. So, we loaded up and set out on our quick trip back home to St Louis. As we were leaving, however, Louie said he wanted to plug in my address and see if his garmin came up with a different route. Well, it did. As we came to the last big intersection my navigation said turn left for a 1 hour and 46 minute trip. Louie's said turn right for a 1 hour 35 minute trip. We collectively decided that the ten extra minutes saved was pretty awesome so we took the hot route. Five miles later we ran out of pavement. At this point our gas meter said we had 47 miles left on our tank. For the next 50 or so miles we rode on a hilly, gravel road. We, as a group came to the conclusion that we were at some point going to run out of gas and have to walk a long way to a gas station. Also, there was no cell service and no sign of any civilization for miles at a time. This was the worst road I had ever traveled on. Finally, our road came to an end.... only problem was that we came to a dead end into the Mississippi River. No bridge. Louie's navigation said "board ferry." Ferry? Wow. Well, the only problem was that this particular ferry stopped operating at 9pm...and it was past 1am at this point. Now we were up the creek, because we didn't have enough gas to get anywhere. Well, we backed up a few hundred yards and then saw, at one of the only houses we came across, two people just arriving home in their minivan. We literally ran out of gas in their driveway. The two people were wearing St Louis Cardinals gear. One man turned out to be the biggest cards fan in the midwest. He was so excited we were there he almost didn't believe it. And, he was absolutely drunk. Turns out the lady with him was his designated driver from some bar. Well, to shorten this up, the cards fan gave us a gallon and a half of gas outta his lawnmower can. He wouldn't take money, and the only thing I had to thank him were a few of my testimony cards which I gave him. He was so pumped.
So, the only place we could get to on 1.5 gallons was a closed up gas station. The owner of the bar that everyone was coming from also owned the gas station. So, the lady took us to the bar to get the owner who then drove to his house to get the keys to the gas station. Again, we came to a rolling stop in the parking lot of the gas station. The owner filled our tank then called the bar and had a couple pizzas cooked up because at this point it was approaching 3am. We were starved and had no idea where we were. Also, we sorta felt indebted so we hung out with the locals at the bar until about 3:30. Which was a stinkin blast by the way. Before we left we passed out some more testimony cards and found a ferry that would actually carry us across the mighty Mississippi. In case you were wondering we took a huge bridge to get across the first time. We had a good banquet, poured our hearts out for Jesus, and raised some good money for a great cause. But, if we hadn't gotten lost we wouldn't have been able to share with all those people in Brussels, Il. We were, in a way, reaching out to some awesome people who maybe needed to see and hear some things we were saying. I hope that all those locals felt God working the way we did. God is good, and there is no way we get off that road like we did without His grace. 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

true story,
-waino