With instructions to leave town at 8:30, we were doing the last minute packing when Jimmy called with the sad news that a friend from our Sunday School Class had passed away during the night. We could hardly believe that Michele Scott, a 46 year old wife, and mother of three teenagers, was gone. We were numb as we thought about her husband Mike and their kids. Then, it crossed our minds that our trip plans would probably need to be changed.
Jimmy went to the Scott’s house to see Mike and the kids. The house was already full of friends who had already stopped by to grieve with them. One of those people was our Youth Minister, Jeff. Jeff had planned to go on the Chile trip to lead D-Now, but felt led to cancel since he would be gone most of the summer on youth trips, and that would be one more week away from his family. That Wednesday morning at the Scott’s house, Jeff said “Go to Chinle…Jimmy, I’ve got this.”
The rest of us assembled in the church parking lot, waiting for word from Jimmy about whether our trip plans would be changed. When he arrived we held a prayer time for the Scott family, and he told us the trip would go on. Even through our sorrow, we had a mission to carry out.
So on Wednesday, July 24th, 35 of us set out for the 703 mile trip to Chinle in four vans, one Suburban, two pick-ups and a trailer full of food, luggage and baseball equipment. We arrived in Albuquerque for the night, after at least 20 restroom stops between Abilene and New Mexico.
After supper we held our group prayer time and talked about the plans for the next day. It looked like Michele’s funeral service would be held on Tuesday when we returned to Abilene and the Scotts were being taken care of at home. Jimmy talked to us about the passage in Mark when Jesus wanted to be alone right after the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, but the people needed him. Even through His sorrow, He had a mission to carry out. And so did we.
Day one was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.