Pit Stops!

Is it just me or is this year FLYING by already!? It's mid February already! So far so good on my goals for my new year! How bout you?

I have another blog topic waiting in the wings, but tonight I'm "compelled" to write this one! Obviously this happens RARELY with my four entries total, but nonetheless it's happened tonight!

I'm in the midst of reading "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. It's about the apostle Paul and his journeys. It's actually a devotional so I'm doing the question part of it via email with one of my former students from KC and I think we both like it, not sure she would tell me if she didn't! :)
Our next devotional is going to be Beth Moore's newest one about insecurity so if any of the 2 of you that may read this blog want to join me via email I'd love it!

Anyway... one of the questions tonight was : What blessings has God brought into your life during "unscheduled stops" along the way?

The answers just kept coming and coming...

My entire 6 years at Englewood was "unscheduled" for me, I went to CBC to go to the missionfield, Englewood was a pit stop... I cannot and would not want to imagine my life without those kids! We'll call this pit stop "the brick building" or "tentacles" (Sometimes God takes us places we didn't ask to be and keeps us there to make us something we never thought we could be and uses us to do things we never thought we could do!)

Oh no, I definitely shouldn't leave out "the blue house" pit stop... it's really part of the above pit stop so maybe we should just call this one, "the Danish" a foriegn exchange student at our school was very unhappy with her host home and in tears at the stinking altar asked if she could stay at my home for a couple of weeks. what pastor can say no to the agnostic / borderline atheist exchange student at the altar? So in she moved... I should have known it was for more than 2 weeks when the moving truck showed up at the house! So I forever have a foriegn daughter in Denmark, who forever has Jesus in heart too as a result of an "unscheduled event" (Sometimes when you're running a youth ministry of 200 plus, working in a school full time, have to load the coke machine, drive the van, and hire a police officer... God sends a kid to live with you... he's not changing your life with more to do, he's giving your heart more to love!)

Then Springfield and AGTS oddly enough were "unscheduled" again at least by ME they were "unscheduled" but they were evidently on God's prewritten plan!

oh wait I'd be amiss not to mention that during the "unscheduled pit stop" between KC and Springfield is where I met the girl who will be my sister in law in a few short weeks. I'm sure my brother is more grateful for that pit stop than I am! ha! We'll call that stop, "the crack of the bed" (God will use ANY situation to get you and the ones you love where you need to be!)

SPTC was definitely a pit stop... a 3 year pit stop! But I wouldn't know a thing about transcriptions, how to spell plantar faciitis, or be able to write a mean SOAP progress note without the help of the PT for a physical therapist procedure that I know nothing about :) Nor would I have acquired Annie, Jen, Connie, Amy, or Amy! We'll just call this "Where's Brad?"
(Stuck in an $8 an hour job? No way you can pay the bills? Somehow I made it through grad school, never missed a meal, and came out with lifelong friends, I'd do the $8 an hour job again for all that! His plan is bigger and where God guides He provides, even if it seems IMPOSSIBLE and RIDICULOUS!)

this one time at band camp... I mean at panera... I met friends of a friend of a friend.... (strangers) because I was in dire of need of rent payers, I mean roommates, those 2 strangers moved in a few weeks later and well, they became so much more than rent payers! I love those girls! We'll call this "the package deal" (no worries if your roommates bail on you while you're working an $8 an hour job and leave you with a three bedroom apt and all it's obligations... God has a plan... one that does more than change your financial situation, but one to change your LIFE!)

believe it or not AGTS was a "pitstop" I was lured in with a semester scholarship and a much needed answer for "what are you going to do next with your life?" "I'm getting my masters" sounds much better than "IDK!!!"

There I acquired Dr. Mostert and James and a newfound passion for social justice and oh .... a master's degree! However, I can't decide if I should call this era "crutches or can't standya!" (Sometimes you might make a huge decision on a WHIM and then realize God is the author of such "WHIMS!")

Oh and I'd be really amiss to not mention this short and sweet pit stop... one time I booked a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica... well, I thought it was to San Jose COSTA RICA it was to San Jose California, I realized it on a layover in Denver! (Should I not have noticed you don't go thru denver to get to costa rica?) Well, I flew back to Springfield, found a fellow grad student going to take the same class in CR and booked a PRICEY ticket on her flight.. which left from Chicago (well, the part of Chicago that is really Ecuador!) The trip went great we flew back ... that morning there was a police chase in her neighborhood and her parked car was hit, undriveable! We were stuck there for a week while her car was getting fixed then drove the 9 hours back to Springfield in the snow! One of the best weeks of my life! :) She called today and left me the longest message almost as long as this entry! :) I smiled and thought, I got one of my favorite friends over a $1000 mistake and a wrecked car! We'll definitely call this "rackempina!"

And the current pit stop? 29 and living at home with the parents! Definitely scheduled to be a short visit! We're at nearly 2 years now. I've acquired old friends and their beautiful children... a few of which who have allowed me the privilege of seeing the change in my life and let me share in their's. I get to see my family A LOT :) I get to call Dave Ramsey and scream, "I'm debt free!" I get to work at the middle school of my youth with some pretty precious kids, all while raising my money to become the missionary I graduated from college 10 years ago thinking I was going to be!

God is in the pit stops, even when they are the result of dire financial straits, failures, a decision made on a whim, wrecked cars, illnesses, whatever, there were too many to list! I'd venture to say... there are NO UNscheduled events... they may not have appeared on our calendar or our to do list, but while we were still in the womb they were there!