Back when we were in Mozambique God told Jason to go to Sedona, AZ. So, on Thursday we set off on our two month road trip around America, making our first stop (after one night in a Route 66 Motel in Needles) Sedona. Sedona is in the high desert and the weather the last few weeks has been in the 80s. We knew some weather was coming through but thought we might just get some wind and rain over night. I can't really begin to describe how crazy our last 24 hours has been, except to give you a play by play
4:00- set up camp, cook dinner, make a fire and get cozy in our tent.
9:00- 11:00- Josiah began scratching like crazy and breaking out in hives all over his body. We give him anti- itch ointment and then some oral steroids. Finally he drifted off.
11:00- 2:00 am- CRAZY winds and rain pummeled our tent. The wind would whistle and roar down the canyon then ram our tent like a freight train. We managed to stay dry and warm however.
2:30 am- I woke up (not that I ever really slept) and realized our tent had collapsed on top of us. I woke up Jason who managed to find the door, unzip the tent and announce we are surrounded by snow. The huge flake floating down may have seemed enchanting, were it not for the thought of freezing to death in the blizzard. I snapped this photo of Josiah's chair before we abandoned our camp
2:45- We throw what we could in the car and the kids (of course) and drove into the city of Sedona (we were camped 12 miles outside of town). Jason had never driven in snow before. It was dark, freezing so we went about 20 mph the whole way
3:30- We arrived to Sedona and tried to check into Super 8, but nobody woke up to answer the bell. We decided to sleep in the car until morning in a church parking lot. Looking for the church Jason ran a red light and got pulled over by Sedona Police Officer Peyote. He was stern, but took pity on us cause we looked so pathetic. At this point I cried out the Lord, "I don't want any more adventure or 'stories', I just want rest."
4:00- We found a dark road and pulled over to sleep with the seats reclined, kids in the laps and big sleeping bags over us. Surprisingly we all slept really deeply til 8:30. Whew, what a good feeling to make to daylight. We are not superstitious people, but did have to laugh at the events that unfolded on our Friday the 13th!
Today we recovered from our night over a cozy breakfast at the Coffee Pot Cafe (Annette loved her happy face pancake), followed by 3 hours in the wonderful Sedona library, then we drove to Flagstaff where we had booked a hotel for the night. The drive to Flagstaff was pretty white knuckle as we were in a blizzard the whole way. We saw two cars that had gone off the road.
Sedona really is beautiful as you can see from below and the storm should be passed tomorrow and temperatures up again. Most of all we are excited for God to reveal why he sent us here.
One last story. . . I should report that a really cool thing happened Thursday night when we were in Needles. Jason and I were praying together and God gave Jason a message for a man he had meet earlier that evening at the gas station. It was 10 at night, but I encouraged him to go back and share the word with the man and bless him with some money. Jason went back and the message spoke right to the man's heart. He shared with Jason all about his drug addiction and recent release from jail. It was a powerful encounter for the man being touched by God's love. It is our hearts' desires to be used more in these ways as we travel led by the Spirit.
