The next morning Anthony and I woke up and drove over to Clearwater Christian College. He had a retreat he had to go to at 10:00am so I started getting ready to leave too, but then it started storming so I went back and slept in his dorm room till 12:00. I started walking from the college down the road towards Tampa because there wasn't really any good place to get picked up where I was. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do because it's really hard to get picked up in the city, but I figured I would discover what to do when I got there. Before long it started to rain again, but there was no where to find cover so I started praying that the rain would stop or that someone would pick me up. I put a poncho over my bag and kept walking, this time trust that God had the situation under control and that He would take care of me. Before long I came up to a side street where a work van was parked. The driver walked up the bank and said that he had seen me walking but didn't have room to stop so he drove ahead of me and was waiting to see if I needed a ride. He was from Puerto Rico and did electric work in the Clearwater area. I noticed a Bible on his dash and our conversations turned to God. We had a very refreshing discussion about Gods faithfulness as he drove me through Tampa to the outskirts where I would be able to get a good ride. Before we parted ways I gave him my number because he wanted to make sure that I got picked up. He said that he would come back and pick me up and take me a little further if I couldn't get a ride, then we prayed and I walked down to the exit.
After waiting at that exit for a while prayed about it and decided to try to walk down to the next exit. There wasn't as much traffic as I thought there would be and the people that were passing didn't seem like the kind that would pick me up or that I would want to pick me up. While I was walking a car stopped up ahead of me. He said that he usually didn't do stuff like that but felt like God wanted him to pick me up. He was a Catholic but didn't want to know what I believed or really what I thought of God though he was full of opinions. He decided that he could take me all the way to Orlando and on the way he told me a lot about himself. He taught psychiatrics at universities for a living. His former wife had bi-polar as well as many other mental disorders and had kicked him out of the house multiple times. He said he still loved her and it really had him torn up about it. The more he talked the more I realized that the only way I could ever be a psychiatrist is by the help of God because I think that he probably needed one as a result of all that he dealt with. After we got into Orlando he took me to eat at Golden Corral then he dropped me off at the mall. It was about 4 when he left.
From there I tried to see if Tim could pick me up, but he didn't have any transportation so instead I took the bus. It took a good 4 hours to get from Buena Vista to Castlebury where Tim could come get me. It was 10:30 when we finally met. We went to a house party one of his friends was having, then came to his house and crashed.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Hitchhiking 8-19-2012
From camp I decided to ride with Melody Rowe and her mom back to Pensacola where she attended college. We spent the night at her grandmothers house then went to Pensacola beach and PCC the next day. The following day I helped Melody move into her new apartment then they dropped me off close to the interstate. I decided to go to Clearwater next to see my friend Anthony who worked at Lighthouse 2 years ago. It was around 12:00 or 1:00 before I made it out to the on-ramp towards Clearwater, then it started storming really badly so I went to a hotel close by and asked if I could wait out the storm in their lobby; thankfully they decided to let me. When the storm finally ended I went back out and waited for my next ride. After a while a truck pulled over and asked where I was going, I told him, but he said he was only going a few minutes down the road and there wasn't really a good exit there so I told him I would wait for another ride. This was actually the first ride I turned down so far. I waited for what started to feel like forever (but was probably only 30-45 minutes when another truck pulled over and the guy told me he could get me about 30 minutes down the road the only thing is that he asked me to ride in the back of the truck. This was definitely the most miserable ride I've had so far. It was already pretty chilly for shorts and a t-shirt especially with the cloud cover and storm coming through and moving at 80 miles an hour didn't help much. Then towards the end of the ride it started to rain lightly which hurts at that speed!
After he dropped me off I waited under a bridge for the rain to quit again then went back out to the on-ramp. The next person was able to bring me several miles down the road. I couldn't really tell what ethnic background he was from but he still had an accent and seemed to have immigrated from somewhere, he didn't say much and I didn't ask though. I was just happy to get a ride!
After he dropped me off at the exit I waited for about 30 minutes then started to get pretty discouraged. It's not unusual to wait 30 minutes or longer at an exit, but the lack of long rides and the fact that it was already 5:00pm and I hadn't even made it to Tallahassee made me realize that I probably wouldn't make it to Clearwater that day which meant I would have to spend another night under a bridge or find a place to sleep. Then I saw a red Ford truck coming towards me. After hitchhiking awhile you start profiling vehicles on how much of a chance there is of them picking you up, and this was usually the type that would pick me up. I remember praying that God would let it pull over and give me a ride. I have to admit that it wasn't a prayer that had strong faith attached to it, but was more like a desperate plea for help. By His mercy the truck actually did stop and he told me that he could get me to Tallahassee. Well, after talking to him a little while I found out that he was going all the way to Ocala, and that his boss would be driving all the way through Tampa that night! It amazed me that such a little prayer held such power when coming from a child of the King. This has definitely showed me that God is always in control and that nothing is too hard for Him. The man that picked me up was a Brazilian American who worked in the tile flooring business. We had some good conversations just about life and about God. He did have a good bit of knowledge about God and said that he prayed to him often, but I don't know how genuine he was. He told me about what it was like back in Brazil and how good things were down there. He said he planned to go back for the Olympics to be a translator since he know both languages. I remember him telling me that I should go spend some time in Brazil to learn the language and I must admit it does sound pretty good.
We made it to Ocala around 7 or 8 and met up with his boss, they moved some tools and workers to his truck from his bosses truck then we both got back on the road. His boss was also a Brazilian American who had started his own construction company. We talked some about his business and how it was going but for most of the trip we didn't talk much. He dropped me off in Brandon where Anthony was able to pick me up. We went to Starbucks and talked some then went and crashed at his mom's apartment.
After he dropped me off I waited under a bridge for the rain to quit again then went back out to the on-ramp. The next person was able to bring me several miles down the road. I couldn't really tell what ethnic background he was from but he still had an accent and seemed to have immigrated from somewhere, he didn't say much and I didn't ask though. I was just happy to get a ride!
After he dropped me off at the exit I waited for about 30 minutes then started to get pretty discouraged. It's not unusual to wait 30 minutes or longer at an exit, but the lack of long rides and the fact that it was already 5:00pm and I hadn't even made it to Tallahassee made me realize that I probably wouldn't make it to Clearwater that day which meant I would have to spend another night under a bridge or find a place to sleep. Then I saw a red Ford truck coming towards me. After hitchhiking awhile you start profiling vehicles on how much of a chance there is of them picking you up, and this was usually the type that would pick me up. I remember praying that God would let it pull over and give me a ride. I have to admit that it wasn't a prayer that had strong faith attached to it, but was more like a desperate plea for help. By His mercy the truck actually did stop and he told me that he could get me to Tallahassee. Well, after talking to him a little while I found out that he was going all the way to Ocala, and that his boss would be driving all the way through Tampa that night! It amazed me that such a little prayer held such power when coming from a child of the King. This has definitely showed me that God is always in control and that nothing is too hard for Him. The man that picked me up was a Brazilian American who worked in the tile flooring business. We had some good conversations just about life and about God. He did have a good bit of knowledge about God and said that he prayed to him often, but I don't know how genuine he was. He told me about what it was like back in Brazil and how good things were down there. He said he planned to go back for the Olympics to be a translator since he know both languages. I remember him telling me that I should go spend some time in Brazil to learn the language and I must admit it does sound pretty good.
We made it to Ocala around 7 or 8 and met up with his boss, they moved some tools and workers to his truck from his bosses truck then we both got back on the road. His boss was also a Brazilian American who had started his own construction company. We talked some about his business and how it was going but for most of the trip we didn't talk much. He dropped me off in Brandon where Anthony was able to pick me up. We went to Starbucks and talked some then went and crashed at his mom's apartment.
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