God Is Good

We spent the weekend sitting in a truckstop in Pontoon Beach, IL, waiting on our 34 hour reset (again, I will defer explanation of this to Mr. Trucker when he "guest posts" soon about hours and other trucking terms). Shortly before arriving at Pontoon Beach, we saw this huge cross, I wish I could remember exactly where...

Huge cross in western Illinois

We really miss our church home back in Green Bay and the fellowship we have with our friends from that church. It's hard to get fed, spiritually, out here on the road. I try to read my Bible, but I know I could be more diligent. And most Sundays we're working, driving, so we don't get to attend a service. Often we'll try to find a service on the radio, but it's hard to hear all of it before passing out of the transmission area.

This particular Sunday (yesterday), Mr. Trucker wondered aloud if there might be a trucker's service at the truckstop (occasionally you do run into that out here ) and I was wondering to myself if there wasn't a way to call a local church and ask if there was a church member who might be willing to come out to the truckstop and pick us up for service. I had just hung up the phone from talking to my brother Ed over in Michigan, and needed to use the restroom. So Mr. Trucker and I put on our shoes and walked inside. We had just finished up in the restroom when we heard them announce that there was a bus waiting to take people to "church" if anyone was interested. Well, God really knew what we needed, because Marcia from Pontoon Baptist church drives this little bus around each and every Sunday picking up those who need a ride to their church. It was a joy talking with her, and an even greater joy getting some spiritual nourishment through Sunday school and the service. What a nice little church with a warm, welcoming congregation. We couldn't have felt more loved!  And just to show you how perfect God's timing is, if we had gone into that truckstop ten minutes earlier or ten minutes later, we'd have missed the bus! Literally!

After being dropped back off at our truck, we walked across the street to the Hen House to get some lunch. We recognized some people we had just seen at church and they greeted us warmly before they left the restaurant. Then, when the waitress brought us our meals, she informed us that they had already been paid for! 

What a blessing! And a timely reminder that God is still working in our lives, even though it doesn't always feel like it!

Yesterday was also noteworthy in that I had a more than 30 minute phone conversation with Sissy, getting updated on what is going on in her life, and we also bought Sassy's bus ticket home for Thanksgiving. It's only a little over two weeks to Thanksgiving, and two weeks from today, we will be home for the first time since going out the end of September. I'm really looking forward to it! Hot showers every day!!!!!

We drove south of  Chicago today to pick up a load in Elgin, and saw this in Naperville, which I gather is a pretty wealthy place

You know it's a wealthy place when the "loaner" car from
the dealership is a Land Rover!

Because we were up early (1:30 a.m.) to pick up our load in Pontoon Beach before heading to Elgin, we parked for the night early (around 3:00) in Gary, IN. We're at the truckstop which has the masseuses who double as notaries. It is not really a very nice truckstop, in fact, as soon as Mr. Trucker opened his door, the smell of urine wafting in almost knocked us over. 

The load we're under (there's some trucker jargon for you) is going to...guess where?...........that's right: Pennsylvania. Fogelville, to be exact. Mr. Trucker asked his dispatcher to get us something west next time, so we'll see if we can break out of this midwest/northeast corridor and get some new scenery.