A Very Unique Trip
“Casting all your anxiety upon him because He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7
God is always with you. No matter what the need or where you are, you can experience God’s care for you. That’s why this verse says “Cast all your anxiety upon God.” I had a unique experience a few years ago which showed me again that God, our Father, always wants to part of our lives.
AN INTERESTING PROBLEM
A group of 20 of us had floated on my two large army rafts down the 200-foot-wide Colorado River on one of our famous river trips. We intended our last night to be a one nighter at a beautiful stretch along the river but it was taken by another group. We had no choice but to continue on. Afternoon turned to evening, and evening to night, as we lazily drifted twisting through California’s Sonora desert.
Everyone was in good spirits as our journey drug on and on. Disappointment hit though, when we came to one of the few drive-in campgrounds on this stretch of the river—the only one within miles. We wanted to stay in the wilds—not in civilization, but there was no where else to go.
While rowing into the little bay around midnight, we were greeted by radios blasting the campground. Wearily I led our little group to an open spot and we set up camp. I prayed hard about what to do. I didn’t want to keep our students at this rowdy camp while we tried to find a way to our cars the next day, but we couldn’t make it to our destination by boat and our cars were hours away if we found a ride and took the roads.
Suddenly I felt the Lord speak to my heart, Go tonight. Huh! We were in the middle of nowhere! How could I ever find a way to get to the cars? I prayed, “Yes Lord I’ll do as you say, but please help!”
HERE WE GO!
I took four members of our group and headed for the campground office which amazingly was still open. While talking to the manager, someone overheard us and shouted from across the room, “I’ll take you folks into town. It’s an hour-and-a-half away. I’m leaving in a few minutes. Can you be ready?”
“Sure!” It was ten miles out of the campground by dirt road and thirty lonely miles to the small desert town he was talking about. It was only a quarter of the distance we had to go, but at least it was a start. What a quick answer to prayer!
We enjoyed our bumpy middle-of-the-night ride and shared Christ with the man as we traveled and got a surprisingly good response.
About 2:00 a.m. he dropped us off at the turn in the road we needed to take. We rejoiced over God’s provision and opportunity, but now—wow—was it deserted! There wasn’t a car light on our road and we could see for miles. We prayed with lots of emotion, “God, please help us!” A couple minutes later a lone set of headlights appeared on the very distant horizon. Eagerly, we watched the lights draw closer and closer and all five of us popped out our thumbs.
“He’s pulling over!” came the shouts and we ran to our rescuer pouring out thanks to him.
We were on the road again! Yahoo! But our jump for joy quickly ended.
Within the first quarter mile we realized he was slightly drunk “Uh… that’s far enough” I quickly interjected. Puzzled, he stopped and out we jumped. He sped off. We prayed again—more earnestly this time, “A ride please, Lord—but a sober one!”
SEVERAL MORE NORMAL RIDES AND A WEIRD ONE
Over the next two hours we happily received two more rides along the most isolated road imaginable and made it to our last stretch of road by 4:00 a.m. We needed a one hour ride up this before the last turn into the long access road to the campground where we left our cars when we began the trip.
Again it was completely deserted. We didn’t see a car for fifteen minutes! We prayed a few prayers and waited then we prayed a few more. Nothing. Then we cried out to God for help again. Moments afterward, a set of lights appeared again in the far distance and ever so slowly a large vehicle lumbered up the long hill toward us. What was it? Finally we could see it was an old bus chugging along an hour before dawn. How strange! Out went our thumbs.
It stopped! We couldn’t believe it.
Hurrying on board, we discovered to our surprise that it was Mexican farm labor bus. Some of us knew Spanish, and we had a great time talking and sharing Christ with the men as we inched our way to our final turn in the creaky old bus. Anything was better than walking!
After an hour, a much-longed-for sign appeared on the lonely highway pointing the direction to the place where our cars were parked. Double yahoo!! We gushed our thanks to the Mexican bus driver and jumped out for our last stretch.
As it chugged off leaving us in a cloud of smoke, we surveyed our situation. Only eight miles on a dirt road and we’d be to the cars. We could walk it, but we remembered that Philippians 4:6 told us to offer God our requests. We held hands and prayed, “Lord, we’re willing to walk, but, if you want to help us one more time, we’d love that!”
In less than a minute a truck roared into view. Out went our thumbs and he screeched to a halt. After a few explanations to the puzzled driver as to why we were all out in the middle of nowhere at 5:00 in the morning, he told us to jump in the back. We bumped and rattled our last eight joyous miles to our vehicles to make it just minutes before sunrise.
God did it! I about kissed the ground!
GOD IS WITH YOU…ALWAYS
Always remember that God is with you no matter how crazy the situation you find yourself in or how unique your needs are. Cast all your anxiety upon Him by praying about each of your concerns every day. Let your requests be known to God and watch what your all-powerful Father does!
“Hear my cry, O God. Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to Thee when my heart is faint. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Psalms 61:1, 2
“I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me!” Psalms 13:6
He often deals bountifully with us by answering our prayers in surprising ways.
Don Miller