Jim Again…
So we survived our first night at Paul B. Johnson State Park. Thank God who is faithful to His Word; as the morning came, so came the Word of the LORD. As I was exiting a dream state and coming back into the reality of where we were, I heard the words, “Tell them you are going to Wichita, Kansas.” I pondered those words for a while and finally asked my wife jokingly if there was a Wichita, Kansas. She said there was, and I said, “That’s where we are going.” She was somewhat skeptical, but since we had no other directional leading, we decided to heed the word and set off for Wichita. As we started navigating our way to Wichita, we discovered that the Kansas map was one of the few in the continental U.S. that we did not have. We had spent innumerable hours researching various states and collecting maps from aross America, trying to figure out where the LORD would be sending us. Is not that the way of the LORD? If we ever think we have God figured out, or believe we know what He will do, we will soon discover a touch of His infinite mystery. God is not limited to our ability to figure, think, or plan for anything!
Between pulling a trailer, choosing campgrounds, preparing for camping, then for travel, new unknown experiences would be happening every day. I had determined that I should do all of the driving, and what an experience it was pulling our overloaded trailer. We had packed our trailer and van to the max, actually over-max, because every available inch was filled with canned goods, clothing and various supplies, which made our vehicles grossly overweight. Once we found ourselves surrounded by two eighteen-wheelers with the wind currents buffeting us back and forth as we drove on a triple-lane interstate. Another time I thought we were going to break down while trying a shortcut on a winding country road, without shoulders. These adventures became precious memories, but at the time of their occurrence, they were sheer dread. We headed to Jackson, Mississippi, then west to Louisiana, and then drove north along a small rural route that paralleled the Mississippi River leading north into Arkansas. As Janie navigated our trip it was our intention to spend as little of our limited funds as possible, and Janie had been warned in a dream that we were to keep on track and not spend time sightseeing. We did not know then that God had a very definite timetable.