While returning from a family vacation, Pastor Davey Ermold, his wife, Laura, and their children found themselves stranded with car problems at the Breezewood exit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It took only a post on Facebook for others in the Charis Fellowship to come to their rescue. Davey, who is pastor of the Blue Ridge Grace Brethren Church in Winchester, Va., shared his thoughts today on Facebook (edited slightly).
But let’s talk about God for a minute. When I posted yesterday, the comments, texts, prayers, and offers of help were such an encouragement to us. One of the comments was key to the way the Lord caused this entire thing to resolve incredibly well.
We were able to have the van towed in a timely manner to a garage owned by a member of one of the churches in our Fellowship. I had a great conversation with his mother, talking about the history of our Fellowship and all the connections we have in common, and all the National Conferences she had attended in the past. I also had a great conversation with the tow truck driver, who also happens to know another Fellowship pastor in the Breezewood area.
Thankfully, it was only the starter, which has faithfully started that vehicle since it rolled off the assembly line 13 years and 220,500 miles ago. And let it suffice to say that the owner gave me the deepest discount possible without taking a loss.
Laura and the kids made it home before me, because someone from church drove up to Breezewood to pick them up. The kids had a blast! They swam in the hotel pool, watched extra cartoons this morning, and even jumped on the beds.
But here’s the kicker. Directly below the starter, the mechanic noticed that my lower coolant hose was *barely* attached to the bottom of the radiator. The hoses and clamps that were replaced eighteen months ago had worked themselves loose over time, never having been re-tightened as they ought to have been. They were broken in, but this bottom hose was nearly off.
We were easily a pothole or rumble strip away from losing all of our coolant and overheating the engine in a matter of seconds. Whether it had happened on the final leg of our trip, or to Laura in the days or weeks to come, that failure was imminent. I’ll take a dead starter over a dead engine any day!
In my post yesterday, I had mentioned how my prayer had turned from asking God to start the van to showing us *why* He didn’t allow our van to start. Rarely has He answered that particular prayer for me in a matter of 24 hours, but He did today.
As believers, the inconveniences and difficult times in our lives are for our good, even when we can’t possibly see how, and even if we *never* receive an acceptable answer for them this side of Glory. Yet, the Word of God promises that they are (Rom 8:28), so the question is, “Are we going to believe that God knows best for our lives?” (Hab 2:4)