Train Conductor or Bus Driver... How About Both

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” ~Matthew 6:25-26

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” ~Matthew 6:34

     This morning, we left the home of our most hospitable hosts, Sandra and Joe, at 6:45 a.m. We arrived at Union Station construction nightmare in Toronto. After circling the train station several times, we pretended to be a taxi and parked just outside of large mud-pit with noisy machines. We drug all 8 of our luggage bags packed with baby elephants to the first set of stairs. Thankfully, Joe helped us carry everything or we would never have made it. Then, it was the next set of stairs, and a third set, and finally, the ticket counter. However, while carrying enough supplies to feed and clothe an army for a year, we noticed that EVERYONE else had only one of two very small luggage pieces. It was an easy deduction: they simply were not going to Moose Factory for 6 weeks.

     Once in the ticket booth, we said goodbye to our “man muscles” and Joe left. There we were, standing in the middle of a busy train station, just looking at one another trying to think of any effective method to move our luggage to our gate. At the ticket counter, the kind Ontario Northland clerk calmly informed us that the train no longer carries luggage and that should have been arranged and shipped by a bus to Cochrane. I quickly and politely informed her that someone ought to do a website revision and the information listed is far beyond incorrect.  She was so gracious and asked us not to make this mistake again, at which point, I wanted to ask her how crazy she thought we were to plan another adventure in which it could happen AGAIN, but I simply thanked her over and over. She found a gentleman with a cart to drag our luggage across the gates, over the tracks, behind the scenes of the railroad station, and to our train. We made it, luggage and all!

     Or, so we thought. The train departed at 8:40 a.m.  During breakfast, Alaina and I were discussing how happy we were that we were travel ling by train. She said, “I would never travel all day in a bus. I hate the bus. Its cramped and I am not a fan.” Well, it just so happened that before we left the breakfast table, our train broke down. We were told that we would be leaving the train at 1:30 p.m. Originally scheduled to be a 12 hour train ride, we were concerned when suddenly we were asked to exit 7 hours earlier, all while knowing that we were not traveling at any unusually high rate of speed.  They moved us from the train to a BUS. Moral of the story is: do not say NEVER, because you just NEVER know! Thankfully, they also found a cart (with only 3 wheels that needed to be held up on one side) and we also moved our luggage. There was approximately a 20-minute wait for the bus to arrive. Ironically, we broke down in North Bay.  Each year, our team stops at the mall in North Bay for lunch. On Sunday, at church, I was talking with some previous Moose Factory servants and they asked how the trip would possibly feel normal without stopping at the mall (assuming then that the train would be traveling past it). We took our 20-minute detour and ran to the mall at North Bay.  We didn’t miss it after-all.

     We had both a train conductor (who was supposed to be driving the broken train) and a bus driver leading the journey. At one point, we stopped, one bus driver got off, the other got on, and we continued. We arrived in Cochrane at 8:15 p.m. That happened to be 15 minutes earlier than the train was scheduled to arrive. WIN!  In addition, the train station attendant, Gerard, bent the station rules slightly and allowed us to store our baby elephants in the station to avoid dragging them across the street to the hotel and back the next morning. Alaina and I spent the entire day blessed by the many people that broke rules, asked questions, and assisted whenever we needed someone. I won’t get used to being treated like a princess, I know I have to go back home to my friends at some point. ;-D

     Tomorrow is destination 3 of 3. Lord-willing, by this time tomorrow I will be asleep. I mean, we will be in Moose Factory! In the morning, we have a 5-hour train, a walk across the town of Moosonee, and a water-taxi ride to the island.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!!!!

Prayer requests:

• Please give God glory and praise for the MANY MANY MANY (many much moosen!) ways He acted on our behalves today. Praise Him for the gracious individuals that assisted us, for a perfect execution of His traveling plans, and for bumps in the road causing us to draw near to Him so that He may draw nearer to us.