We got set up and then at a little after 10:00 am people started lining up to climb. Over the next 5 hours we put close to 200 people up the climbing wall. We did not take breaks because there was a constant stream of people. It was fun to see so many children, youth and adults challenge themselves. at 3:15 the last climber touched the ground. We were tired but feeling good about the day.
Now it was time to take down The Max. The portable climbing wall is a great tool and enables us to take a rock climbing experience to many locations. The biggest flaw in the system is that in order to take down the tower you need to be able to back the trailer up and line up the holes in the tower to the holes in the trailer. Sounds like a fairly easy task with 3 grown men to back up a trailer and line up the holes. Did I mention that we needed a flat surface to set up The Max. We had set up the max in the flattest area we could find. We did not take into consideration the weight of the max with all the rain and the soft wet ground. So with two people directing and one person driving we started to back up the trailer and try to line up the holes on the tower with the holes on the trailer. No matter what we tried we could not get the trailer to back up and line up with the tower. We tried moving the trailer by hand which was not any easy task for us middle aged men. we tried using the jacks to the trailer. We tried everything for 2.5 hours. We took turns backing up the trailer and giving directions. We would get very close to lining the holes up but would not quite get there. Finally as we were pushing 3 hours we all decided we should pray. We were beyond frustrated. I don't know why it took almost 3 hours for 3 Christian men to turn and ask the One who controls everything for help, but we prayed. We took a break ate some food and had a Coke, prayed some more and started the process again. I realized that we didn't have to line up all the holes we just needed to line up one, and then use the hydraulics and the jacks on the trailer to line up the other holes. We were able to get two pins in and were able to start lowering the tower. It came down very easy and we got everything loaded and were heading for home within a half hour. As we left one of us jokingly said we will probably get a flat tire on the way home and have to do this again.
As we were about a half hour from home we noticed that the trailer had actually blown a tire. It was an easy task to fix and we prayed at the beginning and not after we were frustrated. The tire was changed without any problems and we were back on the road and home very quickly.
As I reflected on the incident Sunday morning after a good nights sleep. I realized that I have been trying to often to do things in my own strength. I can get close on my own but never quite where I need to be. When I seek God and His will and guidance things go much easier and through Him things get accomplished easier and better than me trying to do it on my own.
Amen, Gramps
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