Our family likes taking nature walks and taking small trips. When my youngest son Joseph was four years old, we took him for what “I” thought was going to be a short hike for us. My husband took us to a state park for one of these short trips and when we got there, on the board before entry, there was a very short trail pictured on the map. He said no problem, he knew what we were about to do and that it would not be long. This was about two or three pm in the afternoon.

There were cow piles, manure piles we had to step around, over and beyond to get through to our trail. Fine and good. Joseph kept up with us with his little legs. He was excited. I am not a hiker’s hiker. I just walk and look for a bench after a while, sit and then move on again. Chris saw trees painted with a blue patch of paint on them – said he knew where we were going because of these. The whole trip was supposed to be less than thirty minutes (there and back).

We kept walking, walking, walking and saw no signs for the turnaround point. We continued walking, walking and walking some more. Tried to make an interesting game of being hunters for Joseph’s sake (and mine). We came to a deep pool of mud because it had poured down rain two days before our trip there. Just before getting to it, we had come across a slithering thing in the middle of our dirt path. It stopped right in front of all three of us. It was startled and so were we. It was the same color as the sandy path we were on. We told it that it was safe for it to move on and it did. We watched it saunter along without fear from us harming it. It was some type of snake. No rattle. Our next adventure was to find a way around that deep puddle of mud. It wasn’t easy to be completely free of getting wet and dirty but we did it because we knew we had to.

Two hours pass, not just thirty minutes. We were still in the woods trying to find our way out! We did not have cellphones back in the “olden days” of 1997. We didn’t have a drop of water or food to drink or eat. Joseph at 4 yrs. had already become thirsty and hungry an hour or more ago. We had nothing to give him! We didn’t see any signs for getting out of the woods. Now the sky was definitely beginning to get darker.

Chris and I always pray before going anywhere from our home and so we didn’t know how we would be rescued from this situation but we knew we’d find a way or it would be shown to us. We weren’t exactly scared, not yet anyway. But we were tired, tired and tired, thirsty, thirsty, thirsty and hungry just like Joseph. He was getting too tired to walk and since he was not a baby anymore, holding him for long periods of time was tiring for each of us. So we had to figure out how to keep moving to get out of there before dark and keep him from slowing us down. We decided we had to carry him between us. I had my arms and hands under his armpits and Chris had his feet and legs. Then we’d switch positions with him. Can you imagine being young like that and trusting your parents to take care of you because you can’t? He didn’t complain and he didn’t hear us complaining. I don’t recall him crying either. He just kept trusting as well.

As the sun started to go down, I saw the sunlight reflecting off something tin-like up over our heads and way off in the distance through the woods. I said to Chris that, it has to be the roof of a house. What else could it be? I said, “Let’s walk towards that reflective light.” And we did. As we got closer and closer and it must have a mile away from where we first saw it, we could see I was right. We started seeing the top part of a small house. I remember what it looked like to this day. When we got to the house, we walked up the steps of the house and we were about to knock on the door to see if we could get some help or some direction. We had no idea if anybody would be there because it looked so old. The door opened suddenly and the guy who came out was startled as we were – only we were startled and happy to see him, anyone!

It turned out he was a park ranger and if we had come 5 minutes later, he’d have been gone to patrol the park and we wouldn’t have been rescued. We told him of our predicament of getting lost and asked for help. He went around the back of the house and got a Jeep. He said he would drive us out to the exit. We put Joseph across our two laps, sat in the back seat for two people and he drove us out to the exit of the woods. We were so thankful. We were relieved and shaken up at the same time. Chris promised never to take it upon himself to “think” he knew where he was going again when we were with him. He apologized for getting us lost.

All the while we were trudging along through the woods we were being led to find this house with the reflective tin roof though we didn’t know we were being led there. We just kept trusting on the phone service being given to us from on High. Our Universal cellphone did not run out of batteries. The Universal cellphone we used, didn’t get stalled or closed down or burned out or come with message, “You are out of service area – bleep”. I am grateful we always pray before leaving the house or going on any trips, short or long. I am always grateful for the Universal cellphone we carry with us all the time. It’s always dependable.