Bodaway

Saturday morning I woke up and went for a run.  It was early and beautiful.  I ran along the rim of the canyon praying the entire time.  

“Lead me Lord.  Open my eyes.  Thank you for the room.  Thank you for this great place.” 

I imagined the oceans of water that had passed through this canyon making mile-high cliffs.  How amazing.

We enjoyed a long morning at the Grand Canyon and then drove back to Flagstaff to meet with Steve Thompson and his family who were camping there.  It was a blessing as we sat around the campground with them.  Steve’s wife Becky is a physician and he is a full time missionary.  He has a jail ministry and builds hogans for the natives.  They were encouraging as we all shared.  Steve gave us a map that included the reservation roads which was nice.  Even though we were ready to head back toward Flagstaff or Phoenix, he encouraged us to go back to the Bodaway area and continue to pray that God would open our eyes.  This was a tremendous visit. 

Steve and Becky told us about some ruins about 17 miles from the campground and that there was going to be an evening tour later that night.  Cindy had wanted to see these ruins so we went back to town for a quick dinner and then drove to the Waputka monument for the evening tour.  It was another amazing night…in a volcanic crater touring the ruins of a native clan from hundreds of years earlier. 

The Thompson’s were there which was nice.  They went back to their RV and we headed North; encouraged to spend the night at the Cameron Trading Post so that we could be in the Bodaway area on Sunday.  We had planned on looking for the church that was mentioned on the vbs poster on the ice machine at the store in Gap.

After a very dark hour-long drive heading out of a crater, we arrived at the Cameron Trading Post; only to find that there were no rooms available. 

“God, are you kidding?” 

There was almost no one staying at this place the night before and now they were completely booked?  We were discouraged.  I hadn’t heard from the pastor from the church we had planned on attending and now there was no room at the only place we thought would be safe to stay.  So I called the airline and found out that we could fly home first thing the next morning.  We got back in the car and started heading south toward Phoenix.  It would be a long and late four-hour drive but we were missing our kids and it seemed that God had closed a door.  Since the flight home was readily available it seemed like this would be an open door for us to go home.

About five minutes into the drive I pulled over and we prayed again. As we prayed I thought about Jonah being called to Ninevah.  He really didn’t want to go or have a heart for the people.  He had chartered a boat which was a readily available escape; God could have allowed no boats be available for Jonah and force him to Ninevah.  But He didn’t.  He allowed Jonah to make a mistake; to take the easy way out.  I felt like I was taking the easy way out.  So late at night, on a deserted highway, we turned around (once again) and headed north…for Tuba City…to spend the night.  As it turned out, we found a hotel which was in Tuba City.  We were thankful.