More than a field trip

On Tuesday I packed a lunch for Sara and I and gathered things up to go with her on her class field trip.  She rode the bus and I rode with two other ladies.  I enjoyed the day spending it with my daughter and her friends.  It was funny to see how many adults with cameras trying to chaperon the kids and take the opportunity to take pictures of the sights we saw.  The teachers were even trying to sneak in a snap shot here and there.  It was a fun day.

By the end of the day I realized that it was much more than a field trip with my daughter.  God has his ways of placing people in each others lives for his purpose.  At first the two other ladies and I started off with small talk.  I sort of felt like there was an under current of some sort in the back ground, not a bad one or anything just something there.  I'm not sure how it happened but next thing we knew we all said we Christians.  Once that was said then the direction of the conversations totally changed.  There was an excitement and happiness in the vehicle that is a little difficult to explain (maybe it was that under current I had been feeling)

The driver was from Virginia and has only lived here in Flagstaff for a year.  She is married and with two boys.  The other woman has lived here in Flagstaff all her life and is divorced with two girls.  I have lived in here for 2 years now going on the 3rd one, divorced and remarried with 3 kids and a step son.  So you can see that we are an interesting group of women in one vehicle.

We have christian music on in the back ground and we excited and sharing some our stories with each other.  We all at some point made the comment about how nice to was to not feel alone and realize that we all have gone through similar and different things in our lives.   God is amazing.

The woman from Virginia shared her story of grace, faith and trust about losing her 3rd son.  She carried him knowing that he was not going to be in this world very long.  He lived two weeks.  I think parts of my story showed faith, trust and strength of a few situations in my past and the present process my life is in now with being remarried and blending two families together.  The third woman is the one that I felt myself and the other woman (from Virginia) were reaching out to and our words were coming from God.  The third woman has two businesses that she runs from her home.  She cuts hair and cleans houses, apartments and a few office buildings.  She has two girls, and is in a relationship with a man that has 4 kids and lives next door to her ex-husband.  She is struggling and their are so many changes for her and her girls around the corner.  She is seeking and searching and holding on to hope that she has found with Christ.

Every time we found ourselves driving to the next stop our converstaions would go deeper into encourging one another and up lifting each other.  It was amazing and undescribable....three complete strangers.

We returned to the school and exchanged phone numbers and told each other that we would pray for one another.  We said that as busy as life gets we would try hard to keep in touch with each other.

It was more than just a field trip :)

Now for some pictures from the day.  Wupatitk National Monument and Sunset Crater

A view of the San Francisco Peaks

Sara

Below is a song that the woman from Virginia played for the 3rd woman and I knew instantly which song she was talking about, I have the same CD and this is a good song.

I know you must be wondering now....well there was this lady there that was visiting and sight seeing like we all were.  She walked around with her walking stick and we noticed she had a huge lump on her back.  She walked ahead of us and we all were quite curious.  Later the kids got really loud and excited and there she was standing on a hill introducing her monkey and telling all the kids about her friend.  This lady really had a "monkey on her back" :)