His Works {Mission Trip: Alcoa, TN}

Cheryl has been after Justin and I to go on a mission trip with our youth group for quite some time. We planned on going to Parkersburg, IA to help after the tornado hit in 2008, but something came up. Or should I say someone was making all my food come up. (I was 15 weeks pregnant with Eli.) Justin was going to go, but he ended up getting the stomach flu and strep throat all at the same time. Not such a great week at our house. She finally talked Justin into going again, and was trying to convince me. I was less easily convinced. She finally said, just pray about it and let me know in a couple of days. Hmm... I knew how those prayers were going to go, "Dear Lord, how can I let Cheryl down without making her mad at me? Can you give me the words to say? I can't leave the boys and home for that long. Plus, I'm a total wimpy girl, I could never do it. Amen." Fast forward to a normal Tuesday night. I met a friend in the big city. We ate, talked and I mentioned how I was feeling about a lot of differnt things. I told her I was looking for a "Rocky Mountain High Moment." She said just wait and see what God had planned. Little did I know, I'd know in a few short hours. As I headed home, I was praying/talking/yelling at God for a lot of different things. And I said, "OK, God. Enough! I need a RMHM to tell me it's going to be ok." Side note: Cheryl had told me that there was an new radio station in our area that was KLOVE (a Christian station). So I turned on the radio, and I'm not even kidding you, the theme song from RMH last year was on! "My God is not dead. He's surely alive. He's living on the inside, roaring like a Lion." Holy cow, I nearly hit the car infront of me. (Just kidding mom...there was no car. That was for dramatic effect.) Being the "great" Christian that I am, I decided to do a little bargining with God. It went a little something like this, "Thank you, God for showing me that things will be ok. That I'm doing what you ask and I just need to be still where I am. Also, if you want me to go to Tennessee, please have the radio play another song, by the same artist, from RMH. I'll go if you do that. Amen" (Yeah, like a radio station plays 2 songs back to back by the same artist! Hold on to your seat folks, because the dj came on and said, "Alright listeners, I like this artist so much, here is another song by Kristian Stanfeld." At this point I really didn't know what to do or what to say. I just continued to drive dumbfounded for a mile or two. When we got to the chours, I called Cheryl sobbing like a baby and said, "I guess I'm going to Tennessee." Fast forward to June. I was nervous to go because may I remind you, I am what some people may call "weak". And by some people, I would be refering to anyone that knows me. We road on the bus for what seemed like days. Technically it was only 24 hours, but still: tall people+full bus=long drive. Something else I forgot to mention was that I was excited to add 2 states to my list of states. My bucket list goal is to get 50 states before 50. Since the trip I am at 31! Welcome to Kentucky! (be kind, I'd been on a bus for nearly 19 hours at this point...)