Ongoing Adventures from the Road

What a week! I had many intentions to post, but got a bit overwhelmed at the thought of where to begin.  For those of you who followed our Tuesday night adventure on Facebook, I apologize that I never gave the end of the story!  That will be upcoming... Right now, we are sitting in a coffee shop in Georgia while the RV is in the shop yet again (you'll just have to read all the way to the bottom).  You might want to grab a cup of coffee.

I'll begin with Sunday!  Sunday morning found us at High Bridge Union Church.  This church is pastored by a former history prof that Nathan and I studied under at Asburry, Dr. Glen Spann.  It's also attended by our friends, the Kinnells and the Sheets.

  

In the photo above you'll see the kids all working diligently with their fidget toys -- brought by Amy, a serious student of sensory matters.  If someone was really smart, they'd sell a variety box of these toys.  Parents like me would buy them up in a heartbeat.

I don't have any photos of this, but before we left for Tennessee, we surprised our Asbury friends by staying for Global Cafe`.  Such a sweet, sweet time to be with some of our favorite-est people.  It's not lost on us that it won't be long before we don't know any of the students who attend (sniff, sniff).  For now, though, we don't think about it and enjoy a little taste of our 'former life'.  

Monday evening we drove down to Ashland City to see the Carneys.  At one point, the Carneys had been in the Albania program to adopt (which is how we met), before switching over to Russi*a.  They invited some of their church friends over for a yummy supper to meet us and hear about Albania.  It's always special to connect with folks over adoption and missions!  We stayed up WAY too late talking about all sorts of things and before we knew it, we had to be on the road again.  Thank you, Jason and Lindsey, for being such great hosts!  What a joy to meet your children (finally!)!  And thanks to Heidi and Jeff, Will and Casey, Scott, and Stanley and Marie for coming out!  We really enjoyed meeting you all!!!

 From the Carneys, we headed over to the Rutledges.  Elizabeth lived on my hall in the dorm, and we've reconnected through adoption (Rwanda, for them).  They've recently moved to the country, to an outdoors-y paradise for kids (complete with ponds, woods, and a cave!), but Ellie was happy just playing with their cat!  While I haven't seen Elizabeth in probably 18 years, it sure didn't feel that way!  They are a beautiful family and I was so glad for an opportunity like this to see them!

   We had just gotten north of Bowling Green, Kentucky when the RV started shaking violently and making a HUGE racket.  Ellie covered her ears and yelled, "Why are people shooting at us???  And why does it smell like gunpowder?" (like she knows what gunpowder smells like).  We had blown a tire, but because our rear tires are duallies,  we needed a tire service.  The gas station recommended a local guy who arrived within ten minutes.  

   He was really kind and after asking our story (why we were on the road), charged us only $50 for a service for which he said he usually charges $170. He discovered that the steel belting had knocked the tail pipe extension around, crimping one of them closed (a very dangerous situation).  With his tools, he knocked the end off and opened up the crimping.  Not even 15 minutes down the interstate, the spare tire blew.  We limped into a Pilot station, now about 9:30 at night, to strategize our options.

   Many of you friends on Facebook were kind to look up some tire places on the internet to refer us to.  Given the hour, we knew we'd have to spend the night near the tire shop since we couldn't drive more than 30 mph and felt it was safer to drive that speed at night instead of during rush hour the next morning.  We were directed to a tire place just one mile from the Pilot station.  He answered his phone at that hour (a miracle!) and told us that he just happened to have the tires we needed (a hard to find size). We got permission to park over night at Pilot with assurances from the tire shop that they would see us first thing after opening in the morning.  We got situated, hooked up the generator, cable locked it to the RV, set up the beds, and tried to settle in for the evening.  After settling comfortably in, we discovered that heavy rains and strong winds, lasting several hours, were coming our way.  Let me back up: we were told by the previous owner that if it was ever to rain, or if we were to park it long term outside to drive up one of the front tires on a wooden block he provided so the rain could drain off the roof (the ceiling AC unit is heavy and over the years had caused the roof to sag and collect water).  About 5:30 we were awakened to the sound of a heavy stream of water falling from the AC onto the aisle between our beds.  We quickly grabbed a skillet and some towels to absorb the splatter. 

You might ask, "Why didn't you go outside and drive up on the block?" Good, legitimate question.  Blowing downpour aside, the alternator belt had fallen off AGAIN somewhere outside of Nashville, so we had one start on our engine (that we could count on) and didn't want to start the RV until we were within a reasonable leave time for the tire shop.  We held out until a little after 6AM, when we saw a break in the storm on the radar.  Nathan quickly packed up the generator and moved the RV slightly on the prop and the leak stopped almost immediately.

As we started putting away our bedding, dressing, and getting ready to leave, I noticed a strong smell of diesel fumes. We would later learn that in addition to beating up the exhaust pipes, it had also cracked a large hole in the wheel well, under our kitchen sink.  With the tailpipe extension gone, exhaust was filling the wheel well and entering the interior of the RV.

We made it to the tire shop.  A very unassuming place.  The owner met us outside his trailer and along with the help of us his assistant, replaced all four rear tires.  You see, they quit putting these specific tires on vehicles in the late 80s or early 90s, and eventually quit manufacturing them altogether. They had four Firestones that would fit, but we would also need to buy new rims.  In less than an hour, we were on the road again.

Nathan and I had to cancel our dental appointments (thank you for being so gracious and understanding, Dr. Stahr).  But we got to Lexington in time for the children's appointments and eventually onto our most important scheduling item, a visit to First United Methodist Church of Lexington!  Our friends, Jonathan and Faith Powers, had arranged for us to meet their pastor of missions and discipleship, Martina Ockerman, and she invited us to share at their Wednesday night prayer meeting.  We really appreciate the opportunity to meet some folks at this missions-minded congregation, and they were full of great questions about our family and what we'll be doing in Albania.  Sadly, I didn't get any photos (I think I was so full of adrenaline from the previous evening's excitement that I was just putting one foot in front of the other).  

We dropped the RV off at a shop in Wilmore to try to figure out the belt issue, and attended our last 'real' appointment of our time in Kentucky: Reni's consultation at Shriners.  While we had borrowed the Kinnells' car Wednesday, we took advantage of Shriner's transportation service they graciously provide.  Two sweet retirees picked us up at 8AM and took us to Lexington.   

Briefly, it was determined that Reni needs another MRI for us to really know what's going on in his lower left leg.  For the first time we heard of the possibility of "extension" surgery which might add to any bone that might be growing below the femur, as well as additional surgery which might change the arc range of motion for his appendage.  We're hoping to have this scheduled after this trip is over in early March. 

(Above: because Shriners transport insurance only covers parents and patients, Ellie stayed with Sarah R while we attended Reni's appointment).

I can't describe how restful it is when we can stay at the student center. (Which is just what we needed). Unfortunately, our time was brief so we didn't get to see nearly as many folks as we would have liked. We met with some students, had a Skype conference call with our regional directors, and spent Friday afternoon catching up on computer work before picking up the RV again. All in all, not a bad place to be stranded.

(Below:  supper Thursday night courtesy of the Kinnells)

Friday night, we packed up the RV and left bright and early for Berea and then Georgia.  I'll share photos and a recap from those visits in the next post!

BELOW: the kids with Abby and Anna, their teachers-to-be next year!

FINALLY : thank you, prayer warriors, for lifting us up.  We send this just as we get back on the road again from having another repair.  For whatever reason, the lug nuts on the new right, rear tires, sheared off and we limped into a repair station with only 1 (of 8) nuts remaining. God's hand of protection has been on us (the tire shop owner told us while shaking his head that we were "lucky, lucky, lucky!" -- we told him, it wasn't "luck".  As the coffee shop owner (who gave us a ride to his place from delivering lunch to the tire shop) told us, "If you weren't doing the Lord's work, it would be easy going!"  We are reminded that there is one who would love to discourage us and steal us from the joy we find in this season of homeland ministry assignment.  We are staying ever dependent upon Him and hope that as we share of these provisions, you are encouraged to see how your prayers on our behalf are rendering affect.  We appreciate you!