A Trial in Patience, Trust, and Peace

March 13, 2015

It has been quite a week for the Trautman’s. Here was the plan:

Monday – Carl work half day and go to doctor’s appointments and Kimberly clean the camper

Tuesday – drop things off in Garner at storage unit, get both vehicles services and oil changed, drop off car at the Gudzinas house, drive down to Concord to stay at Tom Johnson Campground

drop things off in Garner at storage unit, get one vehicle serviced and oil changed, find put my Dad needs major heart surgery next month, drop off car at the Gudzinas house (very late), drive down to Concord to stay at Tom Johnson Campground (got in about 2:30am)

Wednesday – appointment to have camper looked at and slide adjusted, family goes to Discovery Place while camper is being worked on

Thursday – get camper fixed or if done, go to JAARS campground to spend a few days

Friday - JAARS  

Saturday – JAARS Open House

Sunday – start heading south

This is what the week has looked like so far:

Monday - Carl work half day and go to doctor’s appointments and Kimberly clean the camper

Tuesday - drop things off in Garner at storage unit, get one vehicle serviced and oil changed, find out my Dad needs major heart surgery next month, drop off car at the Gudzinas house (very late), drive down to Concord to stay at Tom Johnson Campground (got in about 2:30am)

Here is where things get interesting:

Wednesday – go into service department to discover that we were not put on the schedule and that they have no time today to look at our camper – they may be able to fit us in tomorrow – go to Charlotte Motor Speedway to watch the cars test the track and then to Hendrick Motor Museum – ended the night at the mall for dinner at Firehouse Subs

Thursday – have the camper at the service department bright and early – go to Discovery Place – get a call from service department saying the problem is MUCH bigger than they can fix today – get another call from service department saying they are refusing to fix it unless we pay – I cry in the middle of Discovery Place – drive back to dealer and more crying on my part – Carl demands to see manager and I cry in his office too – discussion about what has transpired with the whole slide out ordeal – talk about just trading us out for a new camper – look at new campers only to find out that none they have in stock will meet our needs – dinner and more crying on my part – pain pill and sleep while Carl researches our options

Friday – Carl meets with manager early in the morning and decision is made to fix the camper as no other camper available to meet our needs – rental camper set up and I pack up everything from our camper and move it down to another site with a rental (a several hour process ) – more crying for me – our camper finally pulled into the service department to be worked on – it could take until Tuesday to finish – must take the entire slide out apart…again – lunch at the mall with my sweet girl and several hours of shopping – potato soup in the crock pot and showers and baths for the kiddos – one tired momma

Whew!!!! What a whirlwind it has been this week. It definitely has been an ordeal for all parties involved.

The service people here have not handled the problem correctly. It all comes down to the fact the camper should never have been sold to us. The manager admitted that to us this week. They knew that it had been previously damaged and that it was not disclosed to us when we bought the unit. We think that the damage from the tree hitting the slide out was much more extensive than they first thought. They have lost so much money on our camper between the parts and the man hours. I feel like they have an obligation to fix this problem correctly as it was their mistake in selling us a unit that was damaged. The manager agrees and has been working very hard to remedy the situation. I really do feel bad for the dealer. Carl has gently reminded me that this is the way businesses work. He also has had to remind me several times that our camper in nothing to them in the long run. They have probably one billion dollars’ worth of inventory on their lot at any given time and sell units worth several million every day. This is the same dealership that sells and services the huge units for the race car drivers. Our little camper is nothing compared to what they deal with every day.

I have had a wide range of emotions this week ranging from joy to peace to despair to encouragement to belief to trust to unbelief and everywhere in between. It has literally been a rollercoaster for all of us. The kids have been patient (at times) with all the changes this week. We are now in our rental camper for the next few days and three out of the four little ones are asleep and the four older ones are Bible reading and having quiet time. This is the first night we have been in bed at a reasonable hour. School has consisted of getting science lessons at Discovery Place and learning about the art of race car driving. It actually is a lot more interesting than I thought. A lot goes into building the cars and making sure they are ready and safe to race.

This week has taught me so much about trust and provision and about trials. All day yesterday, when we first got the news about them not wanting to fix the camper, the Lord put a song on my heart, Cast All Your Cares Upon Him. I literally sang it all afternoon. Yes, I did shed tears but God calmed my heart each time. It was a moment by moment struggle as with each phone call and piece of news my faith was raging a war against the attacks of Satan to put me in a pit. There were plenty of not so pretty moments on my part. They were plenty for all of this week. Each time though God brought a peace into my heart that told me to just trust and give it all to Him. Carl just kept saying that maybe this is God’s way of blessing us with something better. The better is the things we have learned from all of this. Our faith is stronger.

All this week I have been getting emails from people in our church with praises and prayer requests. Each one has been special to me as it has taken the focus off of me and my problems and allowed me the wonderful privilege of praying for others. It has been a wonderful time of prayer this week as the moment I read the email, I began praying for those requests. God is good in that He did send those emails at just the right time to get the focus off of me. It made me give my problems to Him so that I could focus on praying for others.

Another thing that helped was clinging to the Word of God. On the ride back to the campground yesterday I was losing it and Carl got upset with me. I immediately grabbed my phone and started reading. It calmed my heart and mind and I was able to get my emotions under control. I was able to confess my sin to Carl and bring about a peace to the situation. God is so good in giving us his word. He gave peace to my heart through it. It opened up a wonderful conversation with two of the children who confessed that they have not been diligent in their Bible reading. They confessed that and renewed their desire to start reading again. God is so good.

I do not know what tomorrow holds or next week. I have learned this week that God has got this all and none of this is a surprise to Him. My desire is to honor God through this whole trial. I want the people at the service department and the managers and sales people to see God shine through me throughout this whole process. I want to leave these people knowing that I have allowed Jesus and His love to shine. I want to honor Him with my actions and thoughts and words. I want there to be no doubt that I serve an awesome God who can answer any prayer and give peace in tough situations. Joy – through the trials.