On Monday following that ''insightful Sunday night", Tim and I discussed the fact that the Holy Spirit had begun to deal with his heart about missions while in Mexico that May of 1992. He shared how the Holy Spirit awakened him around daylight and asked him "Would you leave where I have blessed you and come to a place like this?" He and several men of the church had been ministering all week in a desolate, depressed area in the mountain area of Mexico. As he tells it, he could only cry because he couldn't immediately answer a hearty ''YES'' to the question the Holy Spirit had asked of him. His room mate, Izzy Irizzary our worship leader at Cocoa First Assembly awakened and stated "Pastor, the Holy Spirit is in here". Tim replied, "Yes, I know". Izzy spent the next half hour or more worshiping and praising the Lord as Tim wept and pondered the question the Holy Spirit had posed to him.
Now, what exactly am I suppose to say to a story like that? I sat and thought. How do I deal with this. I SURE DON'T WANT TO LEAVE OUR CHURCH and all those we love as family and MY ministry. I have a beautiful home, our daughter, son and grand daughter are here. My friends are all here and in the Florida area. And WHERE IS PINE RIDGE SOUTH DAKOTA anyway? After thinking this all over for a day or so I came up with this idea. Now for several years I had been working diligently to get us out of debt (as I am the bookkeeper of the family). We finally had gotten to where we owed nothing. We had a house payment and utilities and car payment and the usual. Other than the norm we were out of debt and growing a savings account. Now we had some money saved and I thought, ''why not take a trip to South Dakota and check this place called Pine Ridge Reservation out and get this out of Tim's heart and mind".
On Thursday, December 10, 1992 we got on a Continental air liner bound for Rapid City, SD via Denver, CO. Here you had two people who rarely got out of Florida except to go to Greenville, NC to visit Tim's family. We raced across the airport in Denver just in time to get on a thirteen passenger plane headed for Rapid City, South Dakota! WHAT A RIDE! This being only my ''second'' time to get on a plane and here we sit on a thirteen seat passenger ''plane'' flying along the Rocky Mountains with winds blowing ninety to nothing! We left Orlando International Airport where there are people buzzing around like busy bees to land in Rapid City Regional with MAYBE three dozen people in all in the place. We walk outside to six foot snow drifts on either side of us and wide open spaces! Never had either of us ever seen anything like what we had come to that long week end.
We picked up a rental car, Rent a Wreck, and began our journey. Missionary Dennis Preston told us of some friends he had made, Sonny & Mary Schriner, who owned a motel in Custer, SD and we might could stay there for little or nothing. Now December in Custer, SD, there are ''very few tourist'' and plenty of motel rooms. The Schriner's were so generous and let us stay at their place at no cost.
On our way to Custer, we HAD to go past Mount Rushmore. Now you have to understand, Tim had rented a video of South Dakota and the views they had of Mount Rushmore were like you could see them from miles and miles away. NOT! I thought we were never going to find the Mountain, and THEN! There it was! Mount Rushmore, a herd of deer and US! The ONLY hot blooded things within miles of Mt. Rushmore! What a sight! It was truly breathtaking, our first view of the Mountain with the faces on it! We toured around Mt. Rushmore that Thursday afternoon then headed to Custer to find our room.
On Friday morning December 11th before daylight we got on the road, with map in hand, and headed to Pine Ridge Reservation! We had no idea where we were going or what exactly we were doing. Since we've decided God sends people on "Vision Trips" and this is what we were on. At least Tim was! I just wanted him to see this place, get over it and go home to what we were doing. To what we 'knew' and to our friends and family.
On our way to Pine Ridge that dark COLD December morning, we got behind a little VW Bug going extremely 'slow'. Now we were on a ''mission''. We were headed 'somewhere' and here we were being slowed down by some local person puttering down the road. SUDDENLY! The VW in front of us came to a near stop. "What on earth are these people doing" was our thought. As we watched the car very slowly make it's way ''down'' a near 12-16 inch drop off, we thought, "DON'T CURSE YOUR ANGEL". God put that "local" driver in front of us to keep us from tearing that poor rental car to pieces flying down a road we were not familiar with to a place we had never been, reading a map in the DARK! So we continued the journey in a bit of a slower pace. Taking in what we saw by moonlight then as the sun arose on the vast Prairies! What a beautiful sight!
Part one to be continued...again
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