The Dream Is One

An old friend called yesterday. Don't you love old friends? And don't you love it when they call? William Moudy, who now resides in Arkansas, was a major player in our little church in Moorhead for about fifteen years of our pastorate there. He moved because of his employment (what else is new?) and although we have kept in touch, we don't see him often.

Before daylight on June 11th, he showed up at Ditch Bayou for the start of Chicot Challenge V. He purchased a T-shirt and made an additional donation to the DFM. Then nine days ago he texted Penny about me swimming Greer's Ferry Lake. I don't know how much was lost in translation, but she told me he said I could swim the Little Red River from near his home in Shirley, Arkansas to Heber Springs on Greer's Ferry Lake. My heart did a double flip. He also said he was mailing a package of materials for us to look over.

I immediately went to Google Maps. The fact is, I love Google Maps and I go there somewhere between three and fourteen times per day. Really. Sometimes I look at roads, but mostly I look at water. For the past year, I always wind up at the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. More on that in a later post. But looking at the Little Red from Shirley, the Earth View revealed to me a river that is too shallow to swim, at least until you get close to the reservoir. The lake, however, offers over 400 miles of shoreline, a dozen or more islands (some pretty large, Sugar Loaf Mountain for instance), and recreational areas galore with boat landings at each. I even checked on boat rentals. They have two marinas that rent pontoons, but their prices are higher than the surrounding mountains. 

Meanwhile, William checked every other day to see if the package had arrived. I continued to gaze at the map via computer and even created a route of a potential swim. I estimate there are about 16,481 possible routes one could do, but I worked up one that looked long enough and interesting enough to give me butterflies in the stomach. Then after a week, William called and said he was in Lake Village and if I was going to be home, he would drive the stuff over since it had not arrived by mail. Instead, I agreed to meet him half way in Moorhead.

Of course it was good to see my old friend and to chat about doing a swim in his neck of the woods. We talked about some of the logistical issues which he vowed to begin working on right away. Then he brought out the map. I swanny to the good Lord, the route he had selected and the one I had marked on Google Maps were identical. Identical. 

I drove home with a glow in my heart and a new goal in my head. Then I checked the mail.  Wait for it, wait for it . . . . Eight days after being mailed, the package had arrived, and there inside were William's hand drawn notes on the map once more matching the map I created. I thought about the Book of Genesis when Pharaoh dreamed two dreams and Joseph interpreted. "The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do" (Genesis 41:25, KJV).