The first ever Just+Hope Women’s tour from Nova Scotia to
NYC is ready to be inducted into the Venture Expeditions family. Just like any Venture tour we have
encountered many trails including:
- · Roads and maps that don’t match up
- · Gravel
- · GPS and cell phones that don’t work in Canada
- · Hills. Lots and lots of hills
- · Moose – okay, it wasn’t really a moose, it was just a big dog we decided to name moose
- · Being chased by Bear – yeah, that one was just a dog too.
- · Rain, Rain, Rain
- · Eating dinner in a Laundromat
- · Flash floods
- · Swarms of mosquitos
- · Busy roads and crazy drivers
And in each of these trails we have seen the hand of God provide
for us again and again, and I think that is the true legacy of Venture. God has provided safety, shelter, strength,
and encouragement.
So far, this is my favorite story of how God has provided
for us on tour. We were supposed to camp
the first night we were in Maine. We had
ridden 90+ miles that day and during the last ten miles it started to
rain. We reached the deserted, marshy, campsite
and set the tents up. We were all wet
and tired and the mosquitoes at the campsite were swarming. Seriously, the mosquitoes were crazy. There were always at least 5 mosquitoes on
you at all times and 20 more flying around your head no matter how much you
moved and swatted at them. We all piled
in the van to go to the Laundromat to do laundry, eat dinner (yes, that’s
right, we ate dinner in the Laundromat), and escape the rain and mosquitoes for
a little bit. While we were driving we
saw a church with its lights on so two of the girls went inside to ask if we
could sleep on their floor. Just picture
it: two girls who are a “hot mess” walk into the middle of your VBS meeting to
ask if they can sleep on your church floor.
To say the least, they were a little apprehensive at first, but once they
heard our story they said they would look into some options while we did our
laundry. They soon called us back and
said we could probably stay in the parsonage, and if that didn’t work we could
sleep on the church floor. At this point
there was much cheering in the Laundromat.
But the story doesn’t stop there.
They called us back a few minutes later and said they had contacted the
local hotel and they had offered us two FREE rooms. And it gets even better; the hotel lady at
the front desk said we would probably be more comfortable in THREE free
rooms. That meant that everyone had a
hot shower and everyone had a bed. I
love that God didn’t just provide one spot for us, but he provided three safe,
warm, and dry places for us to stay. Isn’t
that just like Him? Always going above
and beyond what we could ask or imagine.
