June 23 - Daniel Finney

While camping across the US to & from Battleground Wa., Mt Saint Helens, the Olympic Forest, and many other places with my son Brian this Summer I felt God's hedge of protection and blessing in many ways and through several God moments along the way. Some may think (as I did earlier in my life) that these are coincidences, yet as I have grown in my faith and relationship with our Heavenly Father, I have reason and a spiritual sense that many of these marvelous experiences are not.

I think it is important to keep in mind an important part of spiritual maturity is making better decisions, being more discerning, and being more wise with our safety, health, how we spend our time, etc.. This provides a natural hedge of protection that God intended and wants for us.

Sometimes though, as was the case when I led Brian on a bike ride at a campground (somewhere along I-20 in Ohio) we forfeit that natural hedge of protection by not using our God given brain to think through the situation. A fellow camper told us the trail goes all the way around the lake about 7 miles. It was a beautiful evening, camp was set up - what could go wrong (dusk coming on in a couple hours notwithstanding).. So, what started out to be a short ride around the campground, turned into a journey around an unknown lake trail with no map. What a wonderful, scenic, enjoyable trail! That was until the sun started going down and it seemed like we'd already gone around the lake more than once though we could not see the lake in many places and there were tributaries, bridges, and other trails.. Adding to my growing concern was that the campground/lake was remote and we had not seen a single person on the trail. Naturally, as the darkness grew, I began praying more fervently "God, you know our situation", "I pray for your mercy, guidance, help" while trying to stay calm and reassure Brian.

Just as it was becoming fully dark with the last vestiges of light minutes from being extinguished, we came out of the woods and saw a county road bordering the trail. As soon as we approached the road headlights were coming towards us and the driver slowed down and stopped as I waved. They said they were "just" out for an evening drive and readily offered to throw our bikes in the back of their truck and take us the 4 or 5 miles back to our campground. You know, that was the ONLY car we saw on the road during the time conversing and during the drive back to the campground. God not only sent Kevin & Candy to our aid, but he had a divine appointment for us and I was able to gift them a very special book "Have You Considered". Praise the Lord our God!