“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalms 46:1

“NO!” Sarah abruptly yelled from behind the bushes, “The house is this way, that’s where we came from!” I sat down on the edge of the dry creek, sighed in frustration and shook my head in hopelessness. “You’re wrong,” I said back as we fought over and over about where we were. We had been lost on my 500-acre ranch for almost 3 hours now. I walked across the shallow creek bed going to no specific location. “It’s over here!” shouted to Sarah behind me as we continued to argue. I trudged off by myself, but Sarah came bustling along in no less than a minute or two as we looked for the house. We stood there, stumped, in the midst of millions of trees, wildlife and empty nothingness. I gave a grumble of how desperate we were and sat down again. It was getting dark there was no phone service, food or water, and we had no chance of making it back to the house. Little did I know, my fear of the wilderness and my strength in God would lead me back home again.
“Let’s give up!” Sarah said as she paced back in forth in front of me; it was obvious we were sleeping in the woods tonight. I laid on the hard ground, fallen debris of trees clung to my hair as I thought of ideas. The cold autumn wind blew through our hair as crispy brown surrounded us. Every now and then you could see Ranch Road 12, but that was at least 100 miles away. We were in the middle of nowhere, homeless for the night. The more and more we wandered, our chances of getting home became slimmer and slimmer, and this was not looking good. I did not want to sleep in the woods. Who knew what would come out at night, and what, what if it got us? Oh, there was no way I was going to sleep in the woods. Fear boiled inside of me, intimidated by the darkness of the night.
“Let’s keep thinking!” I jumped out of my spot and started looking around me. Some spark of energy, knowledge and light bubbled inside of me as I suddenly felt more self-confident. Out of no particular planning, I started walking up the side of cliff, Sarah not far behind. I could feel God’s company with us as I was inspired to go in different directions, He led the way. We walked up the rocky cliff side, down the dry creek bed, across the lake, through trees as we climb, walked ran and worked our way back home. It was almost completely pitch black outside when I saw a flicker of light in the darkness. “There it is!” we both screamed, synchronized. Relief flooded my body as we ran through the last bit of the trees and plants, hopped the iron gate and ran up to the back porch.
Our parents sat there, under the light of the moon, talking, eating and not worrying about us, but Sarah and I had never been happier. We walked inside to feel the warm air and feel safe and sound inside. I have no idea how Sarah and I had managed to find our way back that night, it had been like some other force was leading us the right direction. Although now I look back on it as a physically and mental challenge that has helped me become stronger, it also changed me emotionally, because I know that God’s presence was with us that night and he helped us back home.