Pages

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fire next time


5:14 p.m. Today's project was to come back home from a fun 2- 1/2 day trip with Steve and several couples from church to Lake Havasu in Arizona. We left at 11:00 on Thursday morning, after topping off our propane tank at U-Haul.


Since I drive the RV now, vacations aren't quite as relaxing as they used to be for me or for Steve. He was always so skillful at parking it and doing the technical stuff, and praise God he is still doing a great job on the mechanical end! His poor judgment, fear and confusion make driving out of the question--too dangerous. But I am doing better with each road trip when when it comes to pulling into gas stations, camp sites, and lining up with the hook-ups.
Even though I posted my daily portion of Psalms by texting Facebook, and sent some pictures of fireworks, it certainly felt strange to have no internet connection whatsoever at the La Paz County Park! Since we were with friends, mostly Piecemakers from Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley and their husbands, we had plenty to do and lots of snacks! It's fun to help everybody get their rigs set up, tour inside each one, whether a tent trailer, a Class C (all in one body) like ours, or elaborately outfitted giant 5th wheel trailers, there's plenty to admire. On Friday morning, most of us had arrived, and were sitting in our lawn chairs between the Carbajals and the O'Dells. I felt a bit guilty about not bringing our labs when I saw the three dogs which were there camping with their owners, but our daughters took care of Bailey and Jada's needs while we were gone, and the dogs do come with us when we take our grandsons.
Leaving the portable DVD player behind (by accident) caused Steve to get outside more, and gave me time to read a cute novel about an Ohio Amish girl falling in love with a boy from the "Englischer" community, just lightweight enough for a vacation read. I do enjoy the scriptures sprinkled throughout, as well as the closeknit families portayed. I can identify with the large families, the dedication to their church, and the "traditional values" they practice. Like them, I know that "children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward."(Psalm 127:3)
Friday, after hastily putting together early dinners, we all piled into vehicles and headed over to Lake Havasu City for the annual fireworks demo put on by the Western Pyrotechnics Association. We got there in plenty of time to get good seats in the stands, stock up on the ubiquitous kettle corn, and settle in for the highly touted display.
I noticed a few differences from similar events you might attend in California. Lots of smoking in public, and the hilarious live narrator/commentators mocked the "only two Democrats" in the crowd! (It's McCain country, after all).Everyone was friendly and took delight in preparing us first timers for the thrill to come. Later, I heard from a couple of our friends that they heard some foul language and rudeness, but that was definitely the minority at this family event.
One very odd sight was a woman followed by a teenage girl I took to be her daughter wearing red, lit-up, flashing "devil horns." Not sure what they were trying to convey--Halloween is a ways away, in case they were confused! I imagine that our group sent up a quick prayer--who knows what was on their minds...
On with the show!! The first sets were warm-ups, but better than any 4th of July I've been to except one in Telluride, Colorado in the '70's. When the real show started, the fiery blasts that simultaneously went off actually knocked us back--cool!!! "Spectacular" wouldn't even describe the displays. Can't think of any adjectives, actually, to describe the brilliant, blazing, musically coordinated effects.
I can only imagine the temperature inside those infernos, and never want to find out, either in this life or the one to come!! I am so glad that Steve and I and our children know the Lord, and pray that we can maintain a good witness, through good times and bad. My hope is that we might, with Christ as our Captain and Lord, "bring many sons to glory" ( Hebrews 2:10) before He returns! Because the Word of God makes it very plain what the fate of unbelivers will be, described in passages like Revelation 20:10-15. No earthquake, no flood.
It's fire next time.

No comments:

Post a Comment