It all began in December 2007, and it’s ending in November 2014. A picture is worth a thousand words.
We are so grateful to the Lord for the time we had Uriah. It was quite the journey converting him from a leaky metal box on wheels to a home. He was home for us no matter where we were.
We found out that the main chassis frame is rusting through. It is beyond our capabilities to repair, so after prayer the decision is that we won’t be traveling with him any longer. We will be back to van, cargo trailer, and hotel rooms for future conferences such as the Wichita, KS Energize! conference.
We have been so blessed for these years, but the time has come. We don’t know exactly what his fate will be. We will decide in the next two weeks. Since you all are such a part, we wanted to tell you about this new season in our lives. God is good all the time.
“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” Psalm 95:1
Saturday, we didn’t make it out of Steamboat Springs until around 3:30 p.m. Thankfully the work got finished, and we now have power on the bus, which means a refrigerator that works and lights.
We are staying with a family in the country until Wednesday morning, and we’re looking forward to the conference in Ontario, Oregon (about an hour outside of Boise, ID) tomorrow evening.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Nathan, Melanie, and Baby Max. We are extremely grateful for your prayers and encouragement. We know people are also remembering Nathan and Melanie in prayer, because it was this time last year, that little Susannah went to be with Jesus. Nathan and Melanie are blessed by your prayers for them. We’ll keep you updated about Baby Max, but right now, he/she’s staying put, for which we’re grateful.
Joyfully His, Sarah for the rest of the family
Dad working on some wiring Saturday.
Christopher doing some clean up.
Dad with the two workers that installed the system.
Joseph working on building a shelf around the batteries.
A windmill up close! We haven’t seen the windmills this close to the road, so these windmills must be new since we last went through.
Mountains are a beautiful reminder of God’s Creation!
We are now on the road, several days earlier than was the original plan. Dad decided last week that it would be good if we could leave today, instead of Sunday. We are going to stop in Steamboat Springs, CO for a little over a day to have some electrical things installed as an initial step as we work toward converting Uriah. It was a perfect stop on our way out to Idaho, so we’re grateful that the Lord opened up a way.
(We missed Nathan and Melanie today during our prayer time. They waved at us from their window.)
Thank you for your prayers for Nathan, Melanie, and Baby Max. Your prayers and notes are extremely encouraging to all of us. For those who are wondering, yes, Melanie is on bed rest. She has such a sweet spirit. Melanie had originally planned to ship our Titus2 web orders while we were gone, like she has done in the past, but obviously the bed rest made that not possible. With very short notice, Grandma willingly agreed to ship orders for us this next month. Thank you, Grandma, for your help. Grandad and Grandma will be spending many hours taking care of the ministry and house while we are away. We are blessed.
We’ve had a few changes on Uriah for this trip. First, Dad decided to bring a refrigerator, so we no longer have to refill a cooler and repack it every few days. We’re careful not to have the door open very long, since it can’t be plugged in all the time until we get the batteries and invertor installed in Steamboat Springs tomorrow. Anna and Jesse spent many hours pulling wires for temporary lights for the bus. It’ll be a blessing to have light in the evening.
Dad installed a speedometer with an odometer, but he didn’t have enough time to be able to get it calibrated correctly. No problem, though. We used the small GPS unit to figure out the speed, and here’s a picture of how the speedometer currently looks.
Dad is hoping he’ll be able to work on it at some point during the trip. Steamboat Springs is several hours past Denver in the mountains, so we would appreciate prayer for safety as we drive in tonight, and then that the work would go smoothly on Uriah tomorrow.
Serving Jesus, Sarah for the rest
Uriah was mostly loaded last night, which was a blessing.
We are on our way to the weekend conference in Perryton, Texas. Wintry weather moved into Kansas this morning, and we had sleet and light snow. The roads were for the most part okay. The weather will be warm (around 50 degrees!) tomorrow, so we’re grateful for that. Please pray for those are coming to the conference, that the Lord Jesus will work in hearts.
The boys dived into a quick project before we left: they built a wall for the boys’ bunk area. This will make it so that we only have to heat a portion of the bus at night. The generator is now wired up so the boys will be able to run a couple of space heaters.
We are excited to have Nathan and Melanie join us this weekend. We look forward to meeting some of you!
Joyfully His, Sarah for the rest of the family
Anna and Mary about to get into the bus. (Notice the little “insect” Anna is holding? We bought him and his buddy, “Pray”, at a store in Arizona. “Pray” hangs off of the ceiling near the front, and we need to now find a good place for his buddy. When we hit a bump, “Pray” jumps/bounces :-).)
Grandad and Grandma waving good-bye.
We all gathered inside the bus to pray, rather than outside because of the weather.
We are HOME! It was an incredible 32 hours, but we are safely home, and Uriah is unpacked, and after dinner and devotions, we’re ready to get some rest. Thank you to everyone for praying.
The second weekend conference is now over. Each conference has been such a blessing in its own way by the people we meet, the stories we hear, and the Lord Jesus working in lives. We arrived in the LA area with no traffic issues Thursday night. It was very picturesque to see the lights of the city as we drove out of the mountains.
Friday’s set up went well, and we had time to do a run through our songs. Our coordinators brought dinner for us. They also took us to a Vietnamese restaurant on Saturday evening after the conference for a cultural experience. None of us had eaten Vietnamese food before, so it was a treat.
(The LA church where the conference was held.)
There was a good group for the sessions Friday evening, and families continue to enjoy the music. Saturday was a busy day for everyone. Joseph, John, and Jesse help Dad, Mom, Christopher, and I get set up for our sessions, and then throughout the day, Joseph and John help Dad and Mom with any other speaking needs they may have.
Anna, Jesse, and Mary are a great book table team and run it very efficiently. At lunch, a sweet mom had provided a delicious meal for us, which was a special blessing. The message we shared throughout the weekend was extremely well received. We are grateful to each family who took the time to come to the conference this weekend. We pray you will experience fruit that will be eternal.
(Downtown LA as we went on the outskirts of it.)
We know many are praying and we are very grateful. As we were coming out of the mountains today on a very long steep grade, the boys said they smelled something burning. Dad took the next exit he could, and we pulled off. John hopped out, with Joseph close behind, and they said our front wheel was smoking! Most of us hurried out of the bus to see what was happening. After some examination, it was decided that the brakes had become very hot, and the buildup of oil on the rim from a leaking seal was smoking. Once Dad confirmed the other front wheel was also pretty hot, it meant that there was nothing seriously wrong with that wheel. Dad had slowed way down, used a lower gear, and pumped the brakes as we descended, but decided from then on, we would be going down even slower. We were grateful that we didn’t have a serious problem, and we started off again to help cool the wheels. Uriah continues to provide excitement to a trip that we’ve not experienced before!
Examining the smoking wheel!
Helpful tools??!!
Blowing dust as we drove toward San Luis Obispo area.
Practicing music in the bus tonight.
We look forward to Monday night’s conference in the San Luis Obispo area.
Only for Jesus, Sarah for the rest of the family
The Maxwell family and ministry blog of Titus2.com.
