You know how panicky you can get when you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you don't know where you are or how to solve the problem?

Well one wintry day in February, I found myself stranded and alone on a highway with two of my teenage boys, no cell phone and no directions.

I had three choices: I could panic, I could turn around and go home, or I could keep going and trust God.

Thank Heaven, I chose to keep going and trust God.

My two youngest sons were traveling with me to do some preliminary clean up work at the property where Jerry and Sandra Murphy are hosting a revival this summer that's being called the "Third Great Awakening."

They've named it the Wilderness Outcry and will be held in June, 2010. Before 100,000 people come from all over the world, there's a little bit of work that needs to be done on the property so we were on our way to help.

We met my oldest son Drew and his wife Carol at their church parking lot where we were to follow a few others from their church who were part of the work team.

I had no idea where we were going other than "Poplar Bluff, Missouri." I didn't know Jerry's name. I only had 4 minutes on my Tracfone. And the GPS in my car has been broken for years.

I was completely at the mercy of those I was following to Poplar Bluff, Missouri from Florence, Alabama.

Our tiny group of four cars eventually left the church parking lot after much packing and rearranging on a wintry Thursday afternoon and everything was fine for about ... 5 blocks.

Then I lost sight of the car I was following. It belonged to Drew. My son.

So I drove faster to see if he was way ahead of me, hidden somewhere in the dense traffic.

He wasn't.

When I got to the main highway, Highway 72, I knew I was supposed to turn West so I did. Yet being all alone on that four-lane with no other cars from our convoy gave me an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

So immediately I turned into the first gas station I saw to find a phone so I could call Drew. Instead, I decided to try to get a call into him in the four minutes I had left on my tracfone.

He answered the phone right away and I breathed a sigh of relief!

After I told him I had lost everyone, he said, "Dad broke down in town so I'm on my way back to help him fix the car."

(His dad's car was in the shop so he had borrowed one of Drew's extra cars that should have been propped up on concrete blocks in the yard or towed to the local salvage yard.)

"Just keep going and catch Gary," he said. "He can't be that far ahead of you."

Great, I thought. So I just kept going, watching desperately for our fearless leader's car.

Getting upset didn't seem to accomplish anything so I just gave the problem to God and waited to see what would happen. I turned on the radio and decided to see if there were any good radio stations on in that part of the world.

About an hour or so later, we arrived in Corinth, Mississippi. I wasn't sure where Missouri was in relation to where I was because it's been awhile since I've looked at a US map but I was sure I needed to turn north somewhere along this road.

So I stopped at the Walgreen's on the corner to buy an atlas. I told the girl who checked me out that I needed help getting to Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

She said, maybe that girl over there can help.

"That girl over there - Jennnifer" worked in the store and just happened to be FROM Poplar Bluff.

She highlighted the way on the tiny atlas I had purchased, then wrote the directions for me on a piece of paper. I had to travel through about three states and make several turns which a few of them she described as "tricky."

I was so encouraged that I bounced back to the car with my atlas and my sheet of directions in my hand.

I turned around because, you guessed it, I had missed the road and started on the path Jennifer had carefully laid out for me.

Now that I knew which way to go to get to Poplar Bluff, the thought entered my mind that I did not have a clue where I was going once I actually got there. So I comforted myself with the thought that "Poplar Bluff couldn't be that big and surely I'd run into someone there who knew what I needed to know."

So I just continued down the road, listening to old '70s classics on the radio that I had not heard in years. The boys slept the whole way and were happy to have some peace and quiet.

We drove on for hour after after and all the time I kept telling myself, everything is going to be okay. God always provides. I have seen His hand of provision so many times lately when there didn't seem to be an answer.

I didn't know how He would make all this turn out well but I trusted that He would. And the amazing thing was, I had total peace in my heart even though I did not know where I was going when I got to Poplar Bluff.

After about four and a half hours of cruising along by myself and making all the right turns that Jennifer had explained to me, a silver car passed me in the left lane.

It looked like Carol's car, so I sped up to read the license plate.

Alabama!

It had to be Carol and Drew!

I could not believe it.

I pulled up beside them to see if it really was them and there they were, all waving at me!

I put my hand over my mouth and started laughing.

How on earth had they taken the exact same roads that I had taken when there were obviously several ways to go and how had they caught up with me after all this time?

It was a miracle to me.

Then just five minutes after they passed me, Drew turned off the road. He was following his GPS.

My directions said to keep going straight.

If he had not caught me when he did, we would have missed each other completely.

We soon arrived at a gas station where Drew got out of the car and said, "We're here!" But nobody else from our convoy was there yet because they had stopped several times along the way.

We had beat Gary and the other car by 10 minutes. After filling up with gas and greeting the other half of our party, we followed Gary safely on to Moriah Farm where we were treated like royalty.

Here's the encouragement I hope you get from this story. The next time you find yourself in a situation where you are not sure if you're in the right place or on the right road or not, don't panic. Remind yourself that God is for you, not against you. Then give the whole situation to God and watch for God's miracle-working hand to solve the problem for you.

You can't imagine how it will increase your faith and trust in God and make you love Him all the more when you experience His provision and literally watch Him perform His miracles in your life.

The next time you get lost on a highway, remember Poplar Bluff.

And if you can make it to the Wilderness Outcry this June 14-18, 2010, let me know you are going. In fact, plan to hang out with our group of my Best Friends!