Camp Chi Rho and the long road there:
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| Blown Gasket |
The beginning of the car trouble began 20 minutes from home. We had finally wrangled everyone together and were on our way to Arkansas, but not without first stopping by McDonalds and Starbucks.
We turned the Excursion off at Starbucks so that the lady could hear our order over the engine. When restarted the car began its funkiness. It sounded like a roaring Lion, Cow, Siren, etc... and it would not accelerate.
Solution, stop at the Auto Zone next door and ask a man there for help. Brad, Garrett, Cody Eryn and I sat in the car while my mom went in to try and explain the problem that was occurring, only when they came back to the car the noise suddenly stopped.
"Lets Do This" something along the lines Cody shouted out when the noise stopped. We listened.
Off to Arkansas {again}
We made it all the way to Sulfur Springs and gained a false sense of security...
Chicken Express was too tempting so we stopped in to take a break from driving and eat lunch.
When we got back in the Excursion, Black Beauty, the car acted up again. This time it was worse. I couldn't get the car to go over 10mph and the noise was even more prominent.
Luck would have it that there was yet another Auto Zone to seek help from.
While my mom was inside asking for help I took the excursion for a drive around the parking lot attempting to make it stop. I gave up and put it in park and turned it off in front of the Zone.
My mom got back in, I restarted the car and SURPRISE... no more noise!!
We got on the road as quick as we could again before anything acted up. Probably not the smartest idea.
30 minutes into the drive the Beast stopped accelerating. Yep, on the high way and the car decided it wanted to stop going. I put it on cruise at 60 mph and set the flashers to flash!
Being the "ambitious" driver that I am it was hard to see all of the vehicles passing by so effortlessly in the left lane. :-(
Brad took it upon himself to find a Ford dealership along the way we could possibly stop at. Thankfully there was, 30 miles away. We made it!!!
IT WAS CLOSED!
Next option: the Walmart two buildings over.
The men working told us they thought that we had bigger problems than they could handle.
Next Option: My dad tried to call Enterprise because we all know "ENTERPRISE, WE PICK YOU UP!" Well... NOT on Sundays!
There was a Hertz in Texarkana, about a 30 minute drive away. It was at the airport and they would not/ could not pick us up.
Next Solution: A Taxi would come to the walmart, pick my up mom, me and brad and drive us to the airport. Cody, Garrett and Eryn waited at the walmart with the broken Excursion while we were off to rent a car {2 cars to be exact}
Don't blink at the Texarkana airport, you will miss it!
We rented our cars and were on our way back to New Boston to get the others.
FINALLY we were on our way to arkansas. Not with out an ice cream stop to settle our nerves though.
With our luck we were stopped in bumper to bumper traffic outside of Little Rock for no less than an hour. We gave in then and decided to stop for the night before driving the rest of the way to the camp site. That was great decision.
Next morning and 3 hrs later we made it to the campsite! It was lovely.
Believe me, that may sound a little over dramatic, but it is how it happened. Thankfully I had wonderful driving partners in Garrett and Brad. We didn't lose hope and we made a great time of all the craziness.
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| Brad and I in the taxi {falling ceiling and all} to Texarkana airport |
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| Breakdown in pictures! |
The arkansas Camp Soto grounds.
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| This miniature pony roamed the camp doing as he pleased. |
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| Garrett at "inspirational person" dress up night |
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| Eli and Cullen were not missing out on any fun while home with babysitters and family! |
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| Hunger Games Theme for camp |
The entire week away at camp was wonderful! No, we didn't escape the heat... it was possibly hotter there in Arkansas then it was in Texas.
I was there for worship. The band was fantastic. The worship we shared together with the students and God was amazing. It was such a sweet time.
Jason Seville spoke. He had nothing but truth for all of us, students and adults included.
There were so many memorable moments from camp.
Only thing I'd change would be having my family, Matt and the boys, there with me!
High Points from Camp:
The Videos. Let me just say that the youth workers are impressive in their talent. The videos were hilarious.
Food, it was legit food not dirty camp food! Pretty sure the 4lb weight gain was from that!
The band: who I spent most of my time with. Such great people in love with Jesus Christ!
The Message:
Explicitly communicate the gospel:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ESV)
Lose the excuses: I don't have enough memorized. Just say I don't know, seek council and seek out that person to share the truth.
**You grow by being in a community where you are challenged and grow from different situations**
Serve Other People:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
(Philippians 2:3-4 ESV)
Count others as more important, more significant than yourself! Oh such a hard concept in a world where the self is idolized.
I left camp that week filled up and blessed.
Thank goodness because we had much more drama ahead in the car department.
... We were ready ;-)
