Last Rodeo
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7 NKJV)
After confirming the Backdoor to the House at the end of the Driveway we were filled with multiple emotions: shock, relief, joy, and excitement. We had done it! We had solved the mystery of the House at the end of the Driveway. As excited as we were, we still faced one important question: what now?
From what we could see, we only had three options. One, we could simply choose to walk away, and neither of us were ready to do that. Two, we could keep prodding trying to understand the spiritual side of the story. To be honest, while we knew that there was more to the story, I don’t know that at that time either of us were prepared to really understand the spiritual dimension of all that we had experienced. That left us with only one option, to try and put an end to what we believed to be the illegal side of the story.
Over the previous months Craig and I had become convinced that the House at the end of the Driveway was more than just a local party house. We were convinced that the property was being used to either manufacture or distribute drugs, perhaps both. We knew that we were limited in what we could, and should, do yet we felt like we needed to do something.
Several weeks later, on a Saturday night, we decided to take another look at the backdoor to see if anyone was at the House. We were neither shocked nor disappointed. It appeared that we had picked the perfect night!
From our vantage point, at the edge of the woods we easily counted thirty to forty cars. We thought about sneaking up and writing down the license plates, but for once fear and common sense won out. We choose to stay in our covering and just watch. We could see a small fire on the front porch with several people gathered around it. We saw lots of mostly young adults, not teenagers, walking around the inside and outside of the House. We also saw that same ladder that had mysteriously disappeared now sticking out of what appeared to be a hole in the ground, and we watched as a few people climbed up and down that ladder. We could also hear music, laughter, and people talking, even though we weren’t able to distinguish what was being said.
About forty-five minutes in we decided that we needed to back out and tell someone what we had seen. We thought about telling Craig’s parents but decided against doing that. We thought about getting Chad but decided that would take too much time, besides we would be in the exact same position, just with an added person. We ultimately decided that our best course of action was simply to call 911 and report what we had seen. So, we headed to the nearest convenience store (this was before cell phones!) and made the call.
The convenience store was only about three miles away, so we decided to go back and park in an out-of-the-way place where we could watch the main entrance to the Driveway. Afterall, we felt like we deserved to have a front row seat to whatever happened. Full disclosure, that front row seat almost got us into trouble!
After a few minutes we saw the first of many police cars speeding by us with lights, but no siren. Four or five police cars made their way down the Driveway with one car staying at the entrance. From where we were parked, we couldn’t hear anything, but we could see lots of flashing lights through the trees.
Several minutes later the first of the police cars made its way back down the Driveway, with the others following closely after. We were able to see that each of the police cars had two or three people in their back seats. To say that we felt a level of pride and achievement would be an understatement. We decided to drive back towards the Backdoor and we saw multiple tow trucks and several more police cars, with lights flashing, in the field.
That next morning at church one of our youth leaders, who happened to be a police officer, pulled us aside and told us that they had made multiple arrests at the House. They also discovered what he described as “a major amount” of drugs and manufacturing supplies. He also let us know that the officers knew exactly where we were parked. He was one of the first responding officers, noticed us, and let the other officers know who we were; so much for our great hiding skills.
We went back to the House once or twice over the next several months, only to discover that things were completely quiet. While this experience was over, the memories and the lessons stayed with us. In fact, many of these lessons have impacted me as a Pastor. Join us one last time for Final Thoughts as we wrap this up.
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