It's 11:30 p.m. and I have just arrived in Riverside after touring the southwestern corner of Arizona-- my first visit to Yuma. The trip began in Scottsdale at about 2:00 p.m. on a balmy afternoon in the Valley of the Sun. The thermometer read 112 degrees, but it was a dry heat, as they are prone to say in Phoenix, which means it feels more like 212 degrees-- in the shade!
Inside the Prius with the air conditioner working at full strength it felt like 95 degrees, which was tolerable compared to the desert as far as the eye can see outside the Phoenix city limits. I understand why Arizona has a 75 mile per hour speed limit-- so people can get off the freeways as soon as possible, thus decreasing the possibility of spontaneous combustion. Not good for tourism to have cars exploding in a ball of flames on the desert freeways. The thought crossed my mind as I set my cruise control for 75 miles per hour-- truly tempted to set it at 100. I resisted only because my Prius already has over 200,000 miles on that tiny engine. I was not sure it could take it without imploding.
We made it by late afternoon into Yuma. Penny and I met Joan and Valerie-- two of the most delightful ladies in southwestern Arizona, probably southeastern California (not the conference, mind you, I have female family members there. They are very delightful...). It was exciting to meet and talk with these two teacher friends. They spoke praises about their students, their parents, their church, even their pastor! Imagine that. They were so excited about the 15 students they taught the previous school year. They already had 21 students confirmed for the coming year. I can see why. They are so in love with their mission and anxiously awaiting the coming year. I wanted to enroll myself for the next school year!
I recall how they said there came a time during the past school year when they stopped asking God for more students during their daily worships together (the two of them before school-- missed only two in the two years they have been teaching together). They decided they would simply ask God to provide the funds to sustain the school. They ended the school year in the black-- in fact they ended the school year with a surplus with which to begin the new school year. Amazing what God can do. It reminds me that God's hand is not shortened when it comes to accomplishing what He has set out to accomplish. We are simply the willing or unwilling vessels through which He chooses to work. Well, folks, He is definitely working in Yuma. I will return. I want to see more.
On a side note-- I was stopped three times by immigration officers during my trip back to California. In all honesty, everyone traveling West on Interstate 8 or Highway 86 and 111 was stopped by checkpoints along the way-- two of them in California. I resisted the temptation to speak in my Tijuana drawl. Penny would have pushed me out of the car had I succumbed to the temptation.
We crossed the mighty Colorado Creek on our way out of Yuma and got a taste for the Imperial Valley at night. Brawley and Westmorland are two metropolises you need to mark on your AAA road map. I am back in Riverside to get my Prius serviced for its next tour of duty in the AZ Conference, followed by a wedding in Rosarito, Baja California, on Sunday afternoon, followed by a Differentiated Instruction Convention in Las Vegas on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, followed by a School Board Meeting in Tucson on Wednesday night, followed by....
I gotta get to bed. It is midnight in Riverside and it's only 88 degrees outside. But remember, it's a dry 88 degrees. Boy, am I happy for cool weather!
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