The unofficial Verhoff way of kicking off summer occurs on Memorial Day weekend, like most. We load up the Enterprise, and fly off into the great unknown. Actually, we load up my dad's huge diesel Ford Excursion and drive about 50 minutes to my grandparent's lake house on Table Rock Lake, only 100 feet from the water, and short drive from the beautiful Eureka Springs, AR.
The Excursion and I have a history together that is not all together pleasant. Somewhere in our adventures, I crashed into a telephone pole, taking out Neosho MO power for a few hours and costing my poor dad several thousand dollars in repairs on his beloved Enterprise (again, sorry Dad). Ever since then, I try to avoid driving that veritable monster, but on Monday of our vacation I was sent on an errand to Holliday Island, a little town with a shopping center closest to us.
In the parking lot, a man stopped me to let me know I had a low tire. Low was an understatement. The tire was practically flat, but had enough air in it to get me to the gas station that was barely 200 yards away. Imagine my dismay when I pulled up to the air tank to read an "Out of Order" sign taped on haphazardly. I ran into the store, hoping that they had just forgotten to take the sign off, no such luck. The ladies were working were so helpful though, pointing out a car service station next door. It was closed, but I thought I was another air tank. I did, but it sprayed sweet smelling stuff all over the interior car after vacuuming it. That wasn't going to help me any.
So I parked my vehicle, went inside and tried to get in touch with my dad. Why hadn't I done this earlier? Because we get terrible reception at the lake, and I doubted my ability to get in touch with them. Luckily, my mom had just put her phone in the window where we get about one bar and was able to talk to me. Their advice was to change the tire myself, which is laughable considering how large those tires are, not to mention how heavy.
Around this time, a very nice woman approached me saying she had time to help me change the tire. Another woman, with much more confidence walked up to another gentleman, on his mandatory lunch break and asked if he knew how to change a tire, and if he could help us out. Between the three of us, the man, the woman, and myself, we were able to change the tire. But believe me, it was a team effort. She wasn't strong enough to lift the tire, I wasn't strong enough to loosen the bolts, he didn't know where anything was- but together we made a decent team.
Throughout this little adventure, the woman mentioned several times that God is so good. And believe me, at the beginning of this, I was not praising the Lord. I was mostly muttering about how frustrated I was and how stupid the whole thing was. But by the end of it, I was agreeing with her. God is always good, no matter how frustrating of a situation you are in. God doesn't give us things we can't handle, even though sometimes we need to handle them with a little help, whether it be from God or from another one of God's amazing creations.
I know it's something I seem to preach a lot, that God is always there, that God always has your back, that God rocks, but honestly, 9 times out of 10 that's what we need to here. We live in a world that can easily be perceived as hopeless, but it is in those times that God is the most present. Even in the small bumps along the road, such as a flat on Memorial Day Weekend.
Happy summer, and as always,
Totus tuus,
LeAnn
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