Ugh. What a week.

This is going to sound like whining but stick with me.

This weekend we went up to Vermont to visit with my family. My brother Roger and his new wife Sandi had a big reception in Burlington to celebrate their wedding with their closet 200 friends. Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that many but there were a lot of people. I hadn't seen some of his old high school friends since... well, high school.

Now, you have to remember we were just getting off a week of the stomach flu before this trip. Somehow (God's grace) I didn't get it but everyone else did. Anyway, we had a good visit with some cousins I hadn't seen in many years - one not since my own wedding. We didn't see much of my brother, though, so I made sure to thank my relatives for coming to visit me.

We attended our old church on Sunday morning. I had contacted the pastor to see if we could sing as a family during the service. He's always picking on us if we don't or if Melissa doesn't bring her trumpet. Just as the services start he announces to the whole congregation that I'm going to lead music, too. EEP!

Fortunately, I've been leading congregational singing off and on for several years. It's always fun at Calvary Baptist because I can use a modified version of the "Larry Darryl and Darryl" line from the old Bob Newhart show while pointing to the other two sharing the stage: "Hi. My name is James. This is my Pastor James and my other Pastor James." It's a cheap joke but most everyone laughs.

We got home Sunday night to find that the line from our well to the house was completely frozen. No water for us. It's not that big a deal, we think, so we go to bed. Ha!

Little boy climbs into bed with us early in the morning and subjects our sheets to vile treatments with the contents of his stomach. Did I mention that we didn't have any water to clean him or our bed, wall, nightstand, and the floor?

I first thought I'd take a half day off but instead took the whole day. We called the well company and they came and confirmed my suspicion about the line. At least the pump was still working. So we spent the day melting snow on the stove, rocking a sick little boy, and wondering what to do about the water.

Our house is only 8 years old so they used plastic piping from the well. That means you can't thaw them out via electrical current, using the pipe itself as a heating coil. The well guy said they had something that fished a hose up the pipe and forced hot water through but they couldn't use it without making a mess in our basement. Grrr.

One of the strange things I've acquired over three houses is a small assortment of sump pumps. I have half, third, and one tenth horsepower pumps. So I said to my self, "Self. We can ram a hose up there ourselves." I first thought the 1/10 HP pump with 1/2 rubber tubing would do the trick but after fishing 50 feet of tubing up the pipe, I knew I needed something longer and more powerful.

I ended up sacrificing a 100 ft garden hose by cutting off one end, feeding it up the water line, and hooking it up to the 1/2 HP pump after a quick trip to the hardware store for the appropriate adaptors. The whole thing sat in a plastic cement mixing trough under the main line. The pump sat directly under the outflow so the water would keep it cool but even then the reservoir got pretty warm. Every so often I would push more hose up the pipe. I even got up every two hours Tuesday night to keep it going.

But no water.

Oh, did I mention that Little Boy gave me back his dinner Tuesday night? It was in his bed this time.

Spaghetti. 'Nuf said.

And of course: No water.

Melissa used a friend's house to get cleaned up while I used the locker room here at work. Praise God for companies that encourage people to exercise! This was getting old, though.

I came home a little early Wednesday afternoon and started the pump and hose routine. Melissa and kids were out on a field trip - Maple Sugaring! - So I kept a lonely vigil. At least I could open up the basement a little and get some warm air (65 degrees!) in from the outside. Dishes and laundry were piling up and everyone was on edge. Everyone except the Girl who doesn’t like to take baths: SHE didn’t mind. I think Melissa asked me every twenty minutes after she got home "Is it working yet?"

Finally, after going about 90 feet with the hose I cleared the line. It was 5pm on Wednesday. Both Melissa and I had about as much as we could take from this ordeal so it was a great relief to finally wash some dishes and start the laundry.

Why do I mention all this?

You'll have to go back to Christmas and remember what we went though with losing Asa. Although it was a major upset in our lives we were able to praise God through it all and give Him the glory. Our mid-wife is now a Christian and our testimony through all that has been told at several local churches. We've become somewhat "Super Christians" because of how we handled this situation.

And then we freak out because our pipe froze.

This is all very much like Elijah at Mount Carmel. In 1 Kings 18 Elijah proves God is real with the whole fire from Heaven thing, slays 450 prophets of Baal, and ends the draught over Israel. Big stuff for the man of God. Yet at the threatening words of Jezebel he runs away, hiding and pouting, and has a pity party.

We wonder at Elijah losing faith in God after seeing the fire and the rain, thinking "how could he do that?" Then we do basically the same thing. Human nature never changes.

It wasn’t just the water, of course. Sick child didn’t help. Three days of this didn’t help, either.

The good news is that God is always there, even when we fail to handle situations like we should. God didn’t abandon Elijah and he won’t abandon us when we don’t feel or act like "Super Christians."

God is always good.

But having running water helps with puking children.