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What to do when the World seems Crazy

The world seems crazy right now. We are in the midst of the coronovirus pandemic and it all feels very surreal. I think it is scary for a lot of people and we don’t know exactly how this is going to turn out. There is this sense that we are all in this together and I do feel hopeful in spite of it all. So, I am writing this post just to sort out how I feel about it all and where my source of peace is in the midst of the crazy.

It hit me like a ton of bricks, we were just making a weekly Walmart run, and surely people weren’t being as crazy as all the rumors I had heard. They were. You could feel the sense of panic and fear just driving through the parking lot. It only got worse inside. After we split up our large family to divide and conquer the list, I hear the words “There’s no hamburger” from my husband after he was unable to get all the items on his list. The fresh meat section was not the only victim to the mass hoarding. The freezer section looked like frozen pizzas were about to be discontinued forever. The soap was nearly gone and thankfully not everybody had found out where the RV toilet paper was hidden. When we finally got to the checkout (there was only one cashier in the entire store, but I’m guessing the rest of the employees had to help restock the shelves). The lines were moving at a snail’s pace and the stressful situation came to its boiling point when my five year old put the cart seat belt towards her mouth. “AHH, STOP!” I yelled out of sheer panic, to which she started crying. I felt like a jerk and also hoped and prayed that she miraculously hadn’t touched any other gross things in the store. 2 unpleasant hours in the Walmart welcomed us into this crazy time.

This was Thursday, and in some ways, things have only gotten more bizarre. Feelings of frustration and disbelief for the reaction of this virus had gotten to me and honestly, I have found myself not feeling very peaceful. After getting on my soapbox for a day or two (to the pure enjoyment of my family) about all that was wrong with the world and how everyone was handling the pandemic the wrong way – yesterday (Monday) I found myself coming to a place of reluctant acceptance. I have decided to get over it and concentrate on my own personal responsibilities, things that I can control.

I can’t control the media, I can’t control the government, and I certainly can’t control how many people are going to get the corona virus. I can’t control how my friends react, how many people in my community hoard toilet paper, or whether or not the church services will be cancelled where we plan on ministering.

I can decide to cooperate with local, and federal governments and health organizations and trust that they have our best interest in mind. Obviously I can wash my hands (gross, wash your hands people). I can decide not to worry, complain, panic, or be afraid. I can decide to make my home pleasant in the midst of these crazy times. I can pray for health and healing and a miracle. I can decide to be at peace by trusting in God.

This is from last year at the salt flats, but I thought it looked a little bit like end of the world type stuff.

It’s not that a period of “social distancing” is all that terrible. We homeschool already, maybe the rest of the world will discover how cool it is? I’m kind of a homebody and our home can be wherever we want it to be. I’ve learned to live with uncertainty in our own life as we sometimes don’t know where we are going. A couple of weeks ago my biggest challenge was my new health and fitness goals and trying to take some weight off before summer. Maybe I should try to get back to that idea again instead of eating up our snack stockpile.

Sometimes the world feels crazy, and sometimes I feel helpless, and sometimes I feel frustrated when things feel out of control. Recently I had an experience where a person had let me down, and I found myself very frustrated with the disappointment. In the moment , I found myself getting in the car, and Lauren Diegel’s lovely voice from “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” started playing when I started the engine and reminded me why I was frustrated and disappointed – I had lost my focus. People can be disappointing sometimes, the world can be crazy and chaotic, but Jesus is perfect, never disappoints, and always amazes me. I read a post that quoted Corrie Ten Boom (one of my heroes) recently. She said:

” If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest. “

– Corrie Ten Boom

So, what to do when the world seems crazy? “

“Turn your eyes on Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,

and the things on earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

Thanks for reading along, hopefully the next post will be about some fun exciting adventure, for now this seemed more realistic.

If you would like to find out more about our ministry, Kingdom Pursuit Ministry, go to www.kpministry.org

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Campground Review – COE Campgrounds

On one of our winter trips to Texas, while visiting in Waco with our pals the Gaines’ (just kidding, I only pretend we are friends, they don’t know us:)) we stumbled across a COE campground. I found the Speegleville COE campground using my handy RV Parky app. I had never heard of COE campgrounds before, but we quickly learned that although the campground was a bit off the beaten path, the extra 10 minutes added to our drive was well worth it for the oasis that we discovered.

Let me tell you why we have fallen in love with the no-frills, all-views, COE Campgrounds! COE is short for Core of Engineers, (technically, the name is United States Army Core of Engineers, but that is a mouthful!) According to their website :

The Army Corps of Engineers is the steward of the lands and waters at Corps water resources projects. It’s Natural Resources Management mission is to manage and conserve those natural resources, consistent with the ecosystem management principles, while providing quality public outdoor recreation experiences to serve the needs of present and future generations. https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/visitors.cfm

High Quality H2O

So the COE campgrounds are centered around water recreation in some form. This is reason #1 why I love them. Hello beautiful sunrise/sunset! There is just something peaceful and wonderful about looking out over the water. There have always been wonderful water views whenever we have stayed at one of the COE parks. Fishing, swimming, boating, or just hanging out on the shore and skipping rocks with your kids, there is plenty to do along the water.

Wide Open Spaces

Sometimes you roll into an RV park because it is convenient, right along the highway, or maybe you like extra ammenities like cable and free wifi, typically (not always) these convienient types of RV parks are a bit on the crowded side. I don’t know about you, but I don’t particulary love being about 10 feet away from my neighbor’s sewer hose. Reason #2 that I love the COE campgrounds – Very Spacious campsites! These sites are, by far, the largest, most spread out RV sites of any that we have stayed in over the past 4 years.

Bargain Hunters Unite!

You would think that with all this bragging on the great features of my favorite campsites, that I would be trying to justify an expensive price tag. But, I don’t have to because these guys are totally affordable. Reason #3 that I love the COE campgrounds – affordability for families! Like 20s-30s, and if you are a senior citizen, you can buy some sort of lifetime pass and get 50% off! We travel as a party of 7, and sometimes campsites like to charge an extra $2-$5 per person over 2 people, per night. The COE campgrounds we have stayed in allow 8-10 people per site! As a disclaimer, I wil mention that these campgrounds do not offer long term stays – two weeks is maximum in one site. This does not bother us as we are on the move often.

Is there anything not to love?

I feel like I should give full disclosure that as a nomadic family, we really keep on the move. Most of that is due to the fact that my husband is preaching in a different church every week. Sometimes we will be able to stay in one spot for a couple weeks at a time if the churches are close together. Because of this constant moving, we are able to see alot of campgrounds and compare them. Typically if a campground is level and not overly expensive, we are good to go.

We do not tend to look for campgrounds that have lots of activities and amenities just because we are not there long enough to enjoy them. Honestly, we rarely go into the shower/bathroom facilities because we have our own. So, if you are looking for a long-term type of stay with plenty of entertainment, this might not satisfy your desires. If you are looking for a peaceful, no frills getaway check out the COE campgrounds!

Bonus – an adorable visitor

This post would not be complete without mentioning the little visitor who came by during our stay at the Airport Park COE near Waco. According to another camper, this little guy was rescued by a couple older ladies when they saw his mother die after being hit by a car. They were raising him when they were reported for not having the proper license to care for a wild animal. It was decided to drop off the young deer at this local park because it was known that a group of deer lived here. When dropped off however, the fawn went directly to the campsite to be with people, with whom he had an attachment.

He would come by often and visit with us, he was very friendly. We did get to pet him and he had the most beautiful big eyes. Unfortunately he did not love the jumping and nipping from our puppy Oliver and eventually started to attack him with his hooves.

Thank you for reading along as I talked about the COE campgrounds, so far we have stayed at Speegleville Park and Airport Park both in Waco Texas and Millers Ferry Campground in Camden Alabama.

If you would like to read more about our ministry, Kingdom Pursuit Ministries, go to www.kpministry.org.

I hope you all are enjoying your adventures!