What plans?

5:16 p.m. Today's project was to sleep in until 8 a.m. after a very late night cleaning up the kitchen after our Super Bowl party. After devotions and breakfast, Steve and I would be going to the Jurupa district office to pay our health insurance bill, tool on down the 15 south to deliver some Mary Kay products to my friend Michelle and a friend of hers in Corona, and then go to Disneyland.

By late morning, after completing 3 minor errands, items on my itinerary had to be rearranged, and then eliminated. I needed to pull college son Steven's bacon out of the fire by putting a deposit into his Altura account (a loan, not a gift!); Michelle called at 12:30 to say that she had been in a DMV office in Orange County since 8 a.m. and did not expect to even have her named called for another hour, and then she'd let me know when she was headed back. [I've been hearing from friends that all of the DMV offices have been complete mayhem with only one Friday open each month due to furlough days]. As for Disneyland, it finally clicked that teacher daughter Heidi was off of school for a holiday regular people don't get, Lincoln's Birthday. So, figuring the Jurupa business office might be closed, the health insurance check got mailed, and forget Disneyland! No way were Steve and I going to stand in long lines on a school holiday. Are we spoiled or just sensible? And honestly, with a camping trip to Havasu planned for Thursday through Saturday, the afternoon had to be used to get the RV filled up with gas and propane.

Since I was down on Central Avenue already, I went over to Von's for a few things, and as always, handed out makeup samples at the checkout counter. God finally showed me why this whole day had to be broken up when I circled back through the Plaza parking lot to check on a familiar-looking gentleman seated at a lunch table working on a laptop. It sure looked like Paul Havsgaard, former Assistant Pastor at Harvest before pastoring Calvary Chapel High Desert, and who then was called to Bucharest, Romania to open up an orphanage for the multitude of street children there.

I pulled up in front of the store, rolled down my passenger window and called his name, reasoning that if the man wasn't Paul, he wouldn't look up!! But he did, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship through the window. Paul is here to gather support for the orphanage through March. He is going to arrange through Facebook to have coffee with Steve and me next week.

Paul is very familiar with, and complimentary of, our pastor John Milhouse, and also knows Steve's second cousin Shane Herman, head of the Calvary Chapel pastors in Romania before he and Randi came home, due to a health problem, with their much-prayed-for adopted Romanian son. Now Shane has started Calvary Chapel Kaleo in the El Centro area.

Isn't God good? If we let Him guide and provide, He always tucks a little joy into our day. Steve and I did take care of the RV later, and are here at home enjoying our good Monday evening routine.

Job 22:21-23 has wonderful assurance for us: "Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents."

And today, I needed every bit of God's guidance. Seeing how He shaped my meandering ways into a predetermined time of fellowship and encouragement, perhaps I'll let my plans be a little looser, so HIS plans can rule and overrule!!