So I’ve got something going on in my stomach. For the last three weeks I’ve been throwing up after eating greasy-foods and that finally came to an all-time bottom on Tuesday night after my sponsor meeting. I was finally in enough pain after “losing my supper” (and finding it in the bottom of the wastebasket) that I agreed to allow Jess to see if the doctor could work me in on Wednesday morning.
I missed theBOX on Wednesday due to the pain and found out Thursday afternoon that I will now need to return to the hospital this time for an ultrasound of my gall bladder.
Here’s where things get fun.
This weekend is our annual District Teen Lock-Out in Ft. Wayne. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this event for months and after missing the last two due to “unforseen circumstances”, I had vowed to NOT miss this event unless I was in the hospital! (I’m not, so I’m going!)
I’ve been working out the details of this trip over the last 2-weeks and had a 15-passenger van rented from our local ENTERPRISE rental. I was called on Monday and told that they DON’T have an available 15-passenger, but DO have a 12-passenger, and wanted to know if that would suffice.
It would and I called back, talked to “Chad” who supposedly reserved my new 12-passenger van that minute. Fast forward to Thursday morning. I call into the office and find out that we have a total of 31 students and sponsors going to this lock-out in Ft. Wayne, so being the genius Youth Pastor that I am, I call Enterprise to verify that we have the van and that I can have one of our sponsors drive it without a problem because I would be needing to take OUR minivan to make up the difference in attendance! I left a voicemail and figured everything would be fine.
It’s now Friday, I again called Enterprise this morning to verify the details of our trip (they mistakingly gave me a 12-passenger van instead of a 15-passenger van during another trip a year ago), and to my dismay I “had no reservation on record”.
WHAT?!
“Kristi” agreed to call around and “see what she could do”. When she called back I knew the news was bad. No rental from Enterprise, thank you very much.
I quickly called my friend from church who happens to own and use-as-a-taxi, a 15-passenger van and he agreed to check and see if he had a “run” to make tonight while I did a bit more homework.
A last-ditch call to Avis Rental in Warsaw proved miraculous.
“Derek” answered the phone very politely and I told him that I was in a bit of a bind. He asked what he could do for me and I told him the situation.
His response?
“You’re in luck.”
Apparently another local ministry was renting 4-vans from Avis for tonight and called in a few hours ago to say they only needed three of those already-on-site vans for this evening. To sweeten the deal, Avis’ church-rate for a 12-passenger van is only $80 (plus extra fees, I’m sure), compared to Enterprise’s $130!
Not only the sweet church-rate miracle, but also Avis offers unlimited miles compared to Enterprise’s 200-mile limit. I was a bit nervous about the trip to and from the East side of Fort Wayne including various miles throughout the evening to various locations!
Needless to say, God’s hand is in the details – even in the details of an event that will more-than-likely take any amount of remaining energy from my body!
The teens are worth it!
