As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalms 42:1-2

We were just south of Montreal, Canada and Sunday was approaching. I had looked online before we left and was unable to find a Lutheran church that had an English service in this land of French Canada. We could sit at the campground and Joan and I share a devotion together. It just wouldn’t be the same. We longed to be with the Lord. We wanted to thank the Lord for the help He gave us driving through Boston and Montreal. We wanted to be fed as we listened to a sermon and sang the hymns. Life gets out of joint when we miss our time at His feet. It just doesn’t seem to go as smoothly and it just seems to be filled with more troubles.

It wasn’t the first time we had struggled to find a service. We had sat on logs in a National Park with the kids listening to someone who didn’t know what they were doing. We had gone to a Baptist Church on the edge of Mammoth Cave National Park because there weren’t any Lutheran Churches nearby. We had also had great experiences like worshipping at a historic Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina or worshipping at a friend’s church in Colorado Springs. You take the good and the bad when you worship on vacation. You are just glad you got to be with the Lord and let Him set the tone for the coming week.

In Canada, we asked at the campground office and a very nice young lady named Catherine looked online and found a Roman Catholic service nearby that would be led in English. The service was small and in a community center. It was the church’s mission to the English speakers in the area. Much of the service was the same as my Lutheran service and the priest’s five-minute message was uplifting words on “fear not”. As I sat down that day, I thanked the Lord that He had led us to find a place where we could be with Him. I have to admit that I am lost without the Lord. Like a drug addict who needs a fix, I just don’t function without some time with the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for always being there and for helping us when we are away from home and just need a chance to be with you.