He knows

So here it is, 4:17 am on Saturday morning, and I have been up since 6:40 am, Friday morning. It has been a very long day, and God has been a part of every minute.

As I've mentioned before, I work for a sports ministry. Our annual College Getaway started on Friday, so I had to go to the office, finish a few things and hit the road by noon. Of course, it didn't work out that way. I actually got on the road around 1:40. I was supposed to be at the campground (which is an hour and a half away) by 2 pm. Needless to say, I was late getting there.

My responsibility at this event was registration and housing - I organize registration and make sure everyone has a place to sleep. We were planning for 270 people to attend (including coaches and staff) but housing for the girls was really tight. So tight, that I knew there was a possibility that I might have to drive back home because there wouldn't be a place for me to sleep. We finish registration, eat dinner and then begins the process of balancing the money and checking to make sure housing is ok (while everyone else is participating in the service and activities that follow). I should have started with ironing out problems with the housing, but I dealt with the money first - that way, if there were any problems, I could still get with the coach or student leader from the school to work things out. This process always takes time - mostly because I have an accountant's personality.....details, details, details. For some reason, I don't feel like I've done a good job unless I know exactly which check or cash came with each person. And if I don't keep good records as we go through registration (because it gets busy)...it can mean a long time to reconcile.

So anyway, I'm working on getting the money straight (which it was, thank God!) and finally finish around 11:15pm...about the time that all the evening's activities are finishing up and people are getting ready for bed. All of a sudden, my worst expectations came true....we had a situation. There were more girls than beds! I thought we had worked everything out ok, but because of a mis-count of beds in one cabin, they were a bed short. On top of that, there were three beds without mattresses in this same cabin, which meant they were four beds short and nowhere else to go. So the room I was planning on staying in (which had space for four people) went to the overflow of girls.

Well, I'll tell ya - right up until this problem arose, I was extremely tired and was looking forward to going to bed. However, my adrenaline kicked in (not to mention some serious frustration), because I had a problem to fix, and the only way to fix it was to let them have my room and me drive home. An hour and a half drive. Mind you, by the time we resolved things and I got packed up, it was 12:45.

After stopping at a hotel for a bathroom break and a cup of coffee, I take off. Fortunately, I have a friend who was still up, so I called and talked to him for a while. He talked me through half of my trip home. Then I picked up a talk show about ghosts and hauntings and that kept my attention until I got within 20 miles of home. I was home free! Even better than that - I was going to be in bed by 3 am!

Or so I thought.

Something came up, of which I'm not at liberty to write about, and I knew then, that in the midst of all the turmoil and angst I had dealt with at camp, God had a reason for me leaving early.

You see, right before I left the campground, I decided to double check the boys housing. Turns out, there were two whole cabins that were empty, but because it was so late and everyone had just about settled in, we couldn't do anything about it. The thought had crossed my mind to double check the boys roster, but I didn't do it. God knew I needed to come home.

That's only happened to me a couple of other times, but each time God has moved in that way, I have been totally amazed, humbled and for a short while....scared. What if I had listened to myself, checked the boys roster and worked things out so I could stay at the camp? I would not have been in the right place at the right time to be where God wanted me to be. Only God knows the bad things that might have happened if I hadn't come home.

There are still things to be dealt with, but I believe God will use this incident to work in people's lives. I am eager to see what else He else has planned! No matter what anyone says, being a Christian is not boring!

Now I'm about to go to bed. I'm so exhausted, I'll probably sleep the whole day away. I haven't forgotten I promised to post about the part-time job. I'll try to write about that later today.

Good night! (Or Good morning!)