We drove to Indianapolis and stayed the night and got up Friday morning bright and early for our 13 + hour drive to Shreveport. All the way using our new iPad2 and having a good time. I was especially excited about this new device because I was going to get to use it when I was speaking at Life Tabernacle and TLC Ministry. We made it into Shreveport about 8:30 pm and we were tired but most important, very hungry. We decided to go straight to a restaurant instead of my parent’s home first. We got to the restaurant and I moved a few items from the front seat to the back of the car and we ate dinner. We got to my parents about 10:30 pm and I told Heidi , don’t worry about getting stuff out of the car, just take care of the kids and I will unload the car. I went outside to start unloading the car and there was Heidi with the Back open and pulling things out of the car. I noticed she was not sounding very happy ( I thought she was just tired form the trip ) but my eyes became fixed on a Light on the ground. As I got closer I heard her say the iPad fell and I saw it now on the ground. I picked it up and discovered that the new iPad2 is not made of Shatter resistant Materials…… Yes, our Brand new ( 1 day old ) iPad2 was shattered and broken. Heidi was very upset and went into the house. I am not sure if I was in shock or what but for some reason, I did not get overly excited or angry. I simply said to her, it will be ok, it will work out. (At that moment , I was trying to carefully figure out not only what I was going to do about the iPad but how I was going to handle Heidi. ) At that moment I realized that no matter what had happened, this was going to have to be my fault. Heidi was visibly upset and understandably so.
The questions begin to start popping in your head… Why did this happen, how could God allow this? ( I know it is just a stupid iPad, but still ) One of us had to be calm while the other got the frustration out of their system. After exploring all possible avenues for a solution, we decided to just put the iPad away and get on with our vacation.
I had the opportunity to Minister in Song at Celebration Church on Sunday morning and then spoke at Life Tabernacle and TLC Ministry later in the week. What a fantastic time of ministry all three events. I had the opportunity to incorporate the Account of our iPad2 incident into both of my messages and people were very encouraging and in agreement with us that it would all work out.
When we got back home from our trip we called the Apple store and made an appointment with a Mac Tech. We loaded up the kids in the car and headed off to the Apple Store and to be honest with you, not sure of what we were going to encounter. But we had both agreed that regardless of what they said, we were not going to be angry. We walked into the store and we met with our tech and explained what had happened and he took the iPad and went in the back. He came out a few times, talked to a few people and went back into the back room. After about 10 minutes, he came out with a White box in his hands. He begin to tell us that they had one in the Manager’s office exactly like the one we had purchased and that they were going to give us the new one at no charge as a onetime exception. WHAT!!!! Really???? I looked at Heidi and I began to tear up as I could only utter the words PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!! We both at that moment realized just how much God loved us and He simply cares about the little things. Before we went to the Apple store that afternoon we agreed in prayer that there would be a good outcome, but we truthfully did not expect to leave the store with a brand new iPad2 without having to pay for repairs. 1 John 5:14-15 has new meaning with us now…
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” - 1 John 5:14-15
