Entry No. 20 – IN OUR WEAKNESS GOD IS GLORIFIED, Part II The best way that I can describe the next two days is to say that it was the beginning of having a two-way conversation with God. Except for the couple of times I’ve spoken of previously, I usually did all the talking when it came to my prayer time with God. I guess what I’m trying to say is, this situation helped me to get better at hearing God’s voice. I feel I should pause and say that I do not hear an audible voice in my head when I hear the Lord. It’s more of a “knowing.” I know this about this person, or I know that I am supposed to take this action. In the words of Paul Harvey….”and now, for the rest of the story:” It’s Thursday evening and I have a quarter tank of diesel fuel in my rented van that only takes unleaded fuel. The group of men who laughed hysterically didn’t seem too concerned about my dilemma. I was beginning to panic. How was I going to get this fixed? I, of course, started to pray for God to prompt someone to help me. Any number of guys at the volunteer center had the skills to help, but they didn’t seem too concerned about helping me. I think they were glad it wasn’t their problem. I felt terrible for suddenly becoming a burden rather than a help in the volunteer center. I felt scared about what it was going to cost to repair the damage to a rented vehicle, and I was concerned about how we were going to get to the airport in three day’s time. I was starting to feel the panic rising up and then this scripture came to my mind, “Be anxious for nothing but with prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to the Lord and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 6-7. I tried to remain calm that evening as I continued to pray and ask the Lord to send someone to help. Everyone I encountered that evening, I would ask the Lord, “Is this the person to help me?” Each night at the volunteer center, they had a time of prayer and worship for anyone who wanted to join. I went each night. On Thursday night, I felt like God was telling me that a certain man named Terry was the one who would help me. I knew of Terry because he had spoken a couple of times during prayer and worship in the evenings, and I had seen him around the volunteer center, but I hadn’t interacted with him enough to know him or feel comfortable asking for his help. But I was desperate so I approached him and asked him if he would be willing to look at the van and help me get the diesel fuel out of the tank. He seemed hesitant to commit to helping (after all he was here to help people who had lost their homes and had been living in FEMA trailers for seven months). He finally said, “I’m busy tomorrow morning, but I will try to take a look at it in the afternoon. I was encouraged. Terry was meant to help me after all. The next day, my team had to stay back at the volunteer center because we didn’t have transportation. It turned out okay, because Alva could use the help in the kitchen and she had come to trust and enjoy the girls. By 2 p.m. I was beginning to feel like Terry forgot about his promise to help. Mark, the mechanic, had also stayed back to help with things around the volunteer center that day. I asked him if he could help with the van. He wasn’t very optimistic about being able to help, but he said he’d take a look at it. This is going to sound much easier than it was, but Mark and another guy named Chris, disconnected the fuel line from the tank and drained the fuel out of the tank. Someone else took me to the gas station and auto parts store to get a new fuel filter and a can of “unleaded” gas. Chris put in the new fuel filter. After all that, nothing – no spark at all. With a heavy heart, I was prepared to call a tow truck and suffer the consequences of what I had done to the van. But I kept going back to the fact that I was certain Terry was supposed to help me. I didn’t want to be a pest, but I spoke to Terry again that night and he apologized for not helping. He had several unexpected things to deal with. I was starting to feel like I hadn’t heard the Lord right. By Friday evening, I was feeling quite low and useless. The director of Impact, JD Smith came by and we spoke for a few minutes. I don’t remember what I shared with him, but I do remember that he said, “Be anxious for nothing, but with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to the Lord.” I was amazed and encouraged. That was the very scripture the Lord had given me the day before. I did have peace even though I didn’t know how the van was going to get fixed and I didn’t know if Terry was going to be the one to help or not. With a peace that passes all understanding, I was confident that it was going to get fixed. I called home to my mother that day (I guess I needed some comfort from home). Without knowing that God had given me the same scripture two times already, she also encouraged me with the scripture from Philippians 4:6-7. I was hoping to catch Terry the next morning before he left to work, but he was gone by the time I got up. I was momentarily disappointed but not hopeless. I was mostly disappointed that what I thought I heard the Lord telling me didn’t seem to be correct. We had to stay back at the volunteer center once again. We were supposed to be working out at the LaFontaine’s again. Somewhere around mid morning, Terry called me on my cell phone and said, “This is going to sound crazy and I don’t know if it is going to work, but I feel like the Lord just gave me an idea how to start your van. I’m on my way back to the volunteer center now.” He had me pop the hood and he disconnected a very large hose that was connected to the carburetor. He told me to get behind the wheel and to keep turning the key until the van started or he told me to stop. He had a can of aerosol lighter fluid and he sprayed the fluid into the opening as I turned the key over and over. It took about two minutes, but the van finally started!!! Once it started, he told me this story, “I was on my way to another job and this idea suddenly came to me. It could only have come from God, because I have never done this before, I have never heard of it before, and I wasn’t even sure if it was going to work, but I felt compelled to try it.” He really pressed the point that it had to have been God who put the idea in his head. He seemed amazed. I never told Terry that I felt like God was telling me he was the one to help me until after he told me his story. I drove the van to the nearest gas station and filled the tank with unleaded fuel. We got to go to the LaFontaine’s that afternoon. Before the diesel dilemma, Lynn Lafontaine had described their experience with Hurricane Katrina. They were in their home which is located just a mile or two from the coast line. There were reports that the Hurricane created a 27-foot high storm surge. It was around 8:30 a.m. and the water started to seep into the home through the door jams. Lynn was frantically trying to get sentimental items to higher ground. But the water seemed to be rising pretty quickly. They also had their 8-year old granddaughter Trinity with them that night. Within ten minutes, they knew they had to get to higher ground. There is a breezeway that leads from the kitchen to the garage ( I have attached a photo). When they opened the back door that led from the kitchen to the garage, Lynn said the water was rushing through the breezeway like a river and it was knee deep. The water was rising so quickly they knew their only option was to climb onto the roof. Her husband Russell ran a business that used a dump truck. The dump truck happened to be parked right next to the garage. As they waded over to the dump truck, Lynn was almost carried away by the current. With a strength that they can only attribute to God, Russell grabbed Lynn by the back of her t-shirt and hauled her up onto the roof. There are two amazing parts to that story: The first is the fact that Russ suffers from a disease called CRPS which affects his strength. The second is the fact that Lynn said in 27 years of owning the business, Russ had NEVER parked the truck next to the garage. It’s usually parked several yards from the house. They hung onto the peek of the garage for five hours in 100 mph winds. When the water receded and they were able to climb off the roof, the house had been submerged in eleven feet of sea water. Lynn said there were snakes, eels, crabs, catfish, and other sea life in the house, the cars, the swimming pool and the ditch. Everything was destroyed. We had a lovely afternoon with the LaFontaine’s the day before our departure. Lynn provided lunch, the van was running again, and all was well. I guess I needed one more dose of humility -- I was backing out of the LaFontaine’s driveway and I turned the wheel too sharply, thus causing the front wheel on the passenger side to go off the little bridge-thingy. I have attached a picture so you can see what I did. A picture’s worth a thousand words. Instead of being the one to rescue others, I had now been rescued two times in as many days. It was the first of many lessons in learning to receive rather than give. I did not realize I had a problem in this area, but over the next eight years, the Lord would teach me to graciously receive. Asking for help was humiliating -- I hated it. I would much rather be the giver. But the work he is calling me to do is going to require many helpers and I better be willing to ask for, and receive, help with the great work He is about to do. I still need practice in this area.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 06:48:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015