Tender Mercies

The past week and a half has been filled with challenges. In the mist of it all I can feel what I like to call the "Tender Mercies of the Lord". Blessings inside of challenges. How can that be? Well, let me give a few examples.

On Aug 4, 2010 I was officially released from a calling that I loved. I was so sad to be release from that mission. What was I going to do with myself now? It was interesting in one weeks time right before my release, five people in my ward approached me asking for help with Family History. Four people!! That never happened before. They didn't know I was feeling sad about being released as a missionary. But, the Lord knew! My ward will keep me needed and busy helping them now. Tender Mercy of the Lord.

Last Saturday Mike and I were at Lake Tahoe for a few days while Evan was attending Camp Harmon, in the Santa Cruz mountains. We don't get many days, just the two of us. We had spent the morning at beautiful Sugar Pine State Park, and then went back to our Bed and Breakfast to change into cooler clothes. We were headed out again, when it happened. Jerk, jerk, scrape, tick, tick, tick. You don't want to hear those sounds on a vehicle. Our Grand Caravan Rampvan with only 17,400 miles had a problem, it sounded serious. We called Triple A. Our van had to be towed to Reno, the closest dealership, and we rented a car. Of course they couldn't look at the van until Monday morning. Monday, they could not really figure out what was wrong with the van, as the jerking and noises would only happen occasionally. But,then again they couldn't say it was safe to drive either. They wanted to keep it for a few more days and do some more tests. (Sounds just like medical stuff.) We had to pick up Evan and his motorized chair by 1pm on Tuesday. It's a little hard to pick up a 260 pound wheelchair without a ramp van. We ended up having to pick Evan up at camp with a rental car,leaving his power wheelchair behind, and drive home.

Where's the blessing in all that you might ask. Well, let me tell you. Number one, we are so blessed the van didn't lose it's transmission on one of the curvy mountain roads we had been driving on. No one was hurt. Just majorly inconvenienced. And it's all under warranty. We can live with that! And more importantly that it didn't break down when we had Evan with us. Now that would have been really complicated. Also we are fortunate that Evan has two power wheelchairs. One is very old and he plays power wheelchair soccer and takes it to camp where it can get as dirty as he wants. Also, the camp was very good about being willing to store the wheelchair until we can get up there to retrieve it.

So, there you go. Tender Mercies of the Lord, all around. Actually they are there in every day we live, if we just look for them.

What Tender Mercies of the Lord have you felt recently?