The next morning I drove down to Bend making really good time and feeling pretty peaceful and cheerful. I stopped and put $15 in the tank and bought a couple bags of ice for the cooler. I even cleaned the windshield. I stopped at a Sharis to get online and have some coffee, but their internet wouldn't let me online, it was a shame to pay $2.19 plus tip for just their coffee!
So I got off Hwy 97 and turned onto Hwy 20 towards Brothers. I drove for a while and watched the gas gauge go down and down. I only had a couple dollars left and my other tank was near empty. Basically that meant, that I did not have enough money to get "home". Then I reminded myself that my van was my home now. I'm not really having this conversation with myself, but just sortof talking to the Lord and giving Him my blow by blow spiritual warfare of my mind.
Then I saw this sign:
Joseph Herrins recent blog mentioned the Badlands of the Dakotas! Irony is not lost on this girl!So my fear says, "The Lord will leave you here in the wilderness." and my faith says, "The Lord wants me to trust Him. You don't leave someone out in the desert if you want them to trust you." My fear says, "you are going to run out of gas" and my faith says, "I can't hear you!"
So to prove it I started making up praise songs and singing them at the top of my lungs as I drove this deserted desert road. I said, "I will not fear because I am obeying. The Lord will handle this." I may have cried a little because I am a girl and I was driving to I don't know where and I was really really trusting the Lord. But I was singing praises while I cried.
So then I get to Brothers:
see that house in the background? That was basically it except for the rest area behind me. Then I see this:
I said, Ha ha Lord, very funny. Now one thing that has been a standard is, that if I see a hitchhiker (or potential passenger) twice, then that person is safe to pick up. The Lord had been giving me a feeling that I would be picking up someone in Brothers. So I went to the bathroom and as I came out this guy on a bike with a little bike trailer that I had seen earlier pulled in. So I thought hmmmm...
I went to sit in the shade. I said, "You said you would open the doors Lord, that means he has to talk to me first." So long story short, he sat down near me and started talking. He was a Canadian named Scott who was biking back home to Alberta and had to be to work on Monday but that he had gotten sick and was behind schedule. I told him I had no money for gas and we agreed that I would take him to Ontario (because there is an Ontario Canada as well) and he would give me the $18 he had for gas.
It was a very enjoyable ride. We had the same ideas about politics and how evil the governments of our collective countries are, but he got that pinched nose look every time I brought up the Word or the Lord, so there was not alot of open doors there.
After we had driven for a while and we had used up a good portion of the $18 in gas he had given me, we stopped at another rest area. My van overheated so we spent more time at this rest area then we would have. Scott said that this was the rest area he would have stayed at if he was riding. He said that he would have filled up all his water bottles there too (4 of them.) I said, "there is no running water here." He said "Really? The map says this is a full service rest area, eh?" At that moment the Lord showed me that Scott would have died out there in that heat. He would have run out of water. Yes maybe he would have gotten a ride with someone else. I told him I thought it was a miracle of the Lord that we chanced upon each other what with the extreme heat and no water like that.
Pinched nose look.
Whatever. It reminded me of the fact that Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one turned around to thank Him. I believe that Scotts life was saved today by the Lord. I apparantly had more money and I used the seven dollars in change, the three dollars in my wallet and the $2.82 I had on my pre-paid visa - but it only gave me $1.82 in gas because my pre-paid visa costs $1.00 every time I use it!Now I really don't have any money.
Basically drifting on fumes (and I was literally praying that the Lord would send angels to blow on my radiator so that I did not overheat in the desert) we made it into Ontario. We stopped at a couple banks because Scott wanted to exchange some Canadian money to give me for gas, but those little town banks can't be bothered. So he gave me $40 in Canadian money, and we parted ways. God bless you Scott, I hope the Lord continues to protect you and that you come to apreciate it someday and get saved my friend.
Ok, my internet access is getting irratic so I'd better post this. Hopefully I will have more tomorrow!
Thank you Lord, for being so awesome and meeting all my needs and sending me on this grand adventure! in the name of your son, Jesus Christ! Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment