Still Here!!!

Yes, it's true...we're still at French Camp MS. Yes, we had all intentions of pulling out last Monday (30^th). But it is a little bit difficult to do when your home doesn't start!!! Bill and our fellow ViMMers (nickname for our Volunteer Mobile Missionaries group -- VMM) spent a good chunk of Monday trying to figure it out. Finally decided to call in a local mechanic who changed the fuel filters as everyone was pretty sure it had to do with fuel not getting to the engine. We got that taken care of on Tuesday (31^st) but it still didn’t start. So we called another shop a bit further away (thanks to all our friends at French Camp for all the great suggestions and referrals). Of course, another day would pass, and now it’s Wednesday and it was determined that we needed our high pressure fuel pump replaced. First, they had to find one (which took most of Wednesday), then they had to get the okay from our Good Sam Insurance, then they had to order it (from Texas…hey that’s where we’re supposed to be heading) and the expected delivery time would be late Friday. Of course, mechanics don’t work on Saturday’s, so the earliest they can get here is Monday (Feb 6). Hopefully, we’ll be able to leave French Camp Monday afternoon; just a mere week late.

It was a bit odd those first few days of uncertainty. I had no doubts, each time someone came to help, that they would be able to get our home running. So, there was no need to undo all those things we need to do before heading out on the highways and byways. For example, our kitchen cart slides in on one side of our dining table, our glider chair slides in on the other side, all our double door cabinets are Velcro tied to ensure no accidental door openings, one dining room chair and our wall hangings (a total of three…not much wall space in our home) are stored on the bed, all three laptops and printer are tucked safely away, file cabinet door is locked and doubly secured, as well as the shower door and closet doors. Hopefully, you get the picture. Oh, and I stuff plastic bags or towels in between the glasses and other dishes to prevent breaking or clanging. So I said all that to say this: The first few extra days and nights that we were here, we didn’t undo much -- thinking that we were going to be on the road real soon. Well, by Thursday we realized we weren’t going anywhere for awhile and slowly but surely started to unlock, unhook, pull stuff out, and settle back in. It’s been good; real good. French Camp is a great place to be stuck!

In fact, the blessings have been many. First, thank you Lord, that the failed fuel pump didn’t happen on some unknown highway between French Camp MS and Rosebud TX. Second, we do believe our extended warranty service will pay for this repair (thank you Lord for the example of the previous home owners who transferred it to us with our purchase and then we renewed it just last month). Third, being in a safe and welcoming place to wait out the repair is such a blessing! As I keep saying, French Camp is a great place to be. We were blessed to have many people say, that maybe God is telling us we need to stay indefinitely. They (students and staff) don’t want us to leave; how sweet. Fourth, although there is a new project starting at French Camp, with additional ViMMers coming in, we aren’t taking up any one’s space, (in another week this parking spot will be needed by another couple coming in late as well – we most definitely better be gone by then). Fifth, we had the opportunity in the extra days of being here to explore some more of the French Camp area and check out Choctaw Lake and the Tombigbee National Forest. Wonderful hiking and beautiful scenery showing off God’s creativity. I’m sure there are even more blessings but these are the ones that come to mind now.  Oh yeah, one more blessing is the fact that I have this extra time to write a quick blog. According to my oldest sister, she would prefer I do them more often and not so long…I’m going to try. We’ll all just have to wait and see if that happens. Happy trails, everyone.

By the way, we sure would appreciate your prayers that all is fixed on Monday and that we are settled into our new project at Wilderness Ridge in Rosebud TX safely on Tuesday.