March 8 Travel Day

We headed out bright and early again and were on the road just before 7. NellieMae & Andrew headed to work, Mr Haynes prayed a blessing over us and we headed out. We chose a route that would take us to go see my grandpa Hawk, north east of Atlanta. We didn’t know what to expect, really, but were overall very blessed by our visit with him! We sang to him, visited with him about what we were up to, talked about lots of memories from the past, and he even sang a song with me that he sang to me and my 2 sisters when we were little girls. It was so special.

As we neared the facility where grandpa is staying, we were looking for the best gas prices around that exit. At the pilot station, it was $3.99/gallon compared to $4.15 across the highway. We had planned to go back and fill up before heading up the mountains. Well, when we finished our visit and got back on the road which was only just an hour and a half later, the price at the pilot had gone up to $4.29! So, literally in just a short amount of time, went up 30 cents! crazy!! We drove a little out of town and ended up finding a spot where it was still $3.99, so we filled up there, but it was still $100 for 25 gallons. We did that per vehicle. We drove to the location Stephen had picked out, but once we got back there, the road was gated closed preventing us from going up any further. We drove for another several hours and the rain stayed very steady, it got foggy, and dark. We called a ranger station to see what Forest service roads were open, but just weren’t able to find a location to set up camp. The kids were all willing to sleep in the vehicles, but Stephen found us a warm dry place to spend the night that turned out to be very nice. It’s a mission compound with a hotel and cabins and such right by Lake Junaluska, NC.

As we were going to bed, I read an email of a missionary, Joshua Steele, who is in the Ukraine. He was leading his family to safety, but their van broke down and they were in freezing weather for 41 hours. There was a christian family nearby who found out about them and offered them a place to rest for the night. The mother and children did so while Joshua drove their van a few inches forward every few minutes in the long line of vehicles leaving the country. The family was brought back together as they neared the border. They desire to stay and minister to the others fleeing the country and are needing money to purchase a new van to do so.

I must confess, it was very humbling to be laying in a nice warm bed out of the cold and rain, thinking of the sacrifices the Steele family was making as they desired to minister in even colder conditions.