... Five Miles from Home ...

Where to begin this post?
By saying this:
A Great Book ~ and ~ An Amazing God ~ A Great Book ~

I surprised Don with a book for Christmas. Not just any book, a book by Drew Jones .... "Five Miles From Home ...and other exotic travel destinations, is a travel book about not traveling, or more correctly, not traveling far from home. It is not a book of lists of specific local things to do ..., rather it is a book about learning to enjoy what is nearby, whatever those things might be." Drew's wife Diane is Corinne's Literature teacher and we respect their family so much for their example of true love and sacrifice. Here is another excerpt from Drew's book ... " The seed for the book was born over 20 years ago with my son Reid. His disabilities and medical needs were so intense that traveling became very difficult for us. When his conditions became so acute that nurses or nursing homes were required for any time away, the possibility of significant travel evaporated." Drew's book is a great resource and an inspiration.

So Don started reading it Christmas morning (that's the book he was reading on the deck - previous post) and decided to use it for an idea on New Year's Day for family time. His idea? A family photo shoot contest. ~ An Amazing God ~

Corinne and Kimberly received Nikon Coolpix S550 digital cameras for Christmas and the other girls had cameras so we divided into two teams of three, had two hours to shoot photo's and we had to stay within a radius of "Five Miles from Home." Are you ready for an amazing story? It's a long one ... Corinne, Christiana and I headed to the Agriculture Park for some fun shots ... And then traveled around a few fields and churches ...
Don and Kendall and Kimberly headed north ... Toward MC and a beautiful forest ...

Above: a beautiful reflection ... Below: not such a beautiful picture - but an interesting shot of a bullet riddled old car with graffiti...Next, the two C's and I headed to Washington Grove to take a few pictures at the railroad tracks. They both got some cool shots of the tracks ... Out of nowhere, a silver car raced up to the tracks and a man quickly got out of the car. He asked us, "Has the Amtrak train come through yet?" In my pride I thought, would we be standing here on the tracks if a train were coming? What I said was, "no." He replied, "Well, when you see the train lights you have about a minute until it's here." And he drove off ...A very few minutes later, thankfully we saw the train light - I don't think it was even a minute before it came hurling past without even slowing down. The girls and I had quickly scurried over toward the car, but the rush of wind was harsh on our faces. I was so extremely grateful for that stranger's warning. We all were a bit weak in the knees and got in the car. At that moment I wanted to talk to Don, but I was a bit shaken up so I asked Corinne to call him and see what they were doing. He had left his cell phone at home, so we called Kendall's phone and he answered. He kept the call really brief and told Corinne he had to keep an eye on the girls and had to go. When she hung up I asked her what they were doing? Corinne said that he couldn't talk, he had to keep an eye on the girls - we didn't know where they were or what they were doing ... I told Corinne to call him right back and tell him that there was a train that is going north - very fast - and if they were anywhere near a railroad track they need to watch out.We didn't know where they were, but I felt such an urgency to call them. Don, Aimee the pup and the two K's were north, five miles north ... on the tracks walking onto a bridge, a railroad bridge, on an overpass, without a quick way down...When we called, they were walking on the tracks to the bridge. They were in the middle of the bridge when Don saw the light from the train in the distance. He yelled to the girls and they all ran very quickly off the tracks ... with less than a minute to spare before the Amtrak train came rushing past.

A very few minutes later, Kendall called and said, "Thank you for calling and warning us. We were on the tracks." How did we know? We didn't ...

He is an Amazing God ... to prompt my heart so strongly to call Don back and warn him. Was the man in the silver car an angel of the Lord? Our God sent that stranger to save us - all six of us, from the same train.

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;" Psalm 91:11

When we all returned home, we hugged and talked a lot about God's amazing grace in our lives on New Year's day ... and as for the photo's ... the girls took over 400 photo's that day. I posted the finals throughout this post, and this last one, by Corinne, was our winner.

May the Lord continue to show His amazing kindness to you throughout this New Year! He is indeed amazing ... He is faithful ... We are so remarkably grateful.