07/08/2013
Well, the devil fought this one hard, but…he lost. The fuel filter went bad and left us stranded on I-95 somewhere around Pooler GA. We tried to smile as we’ve become quite accustomed to spiritual warfare by now, and we paused for prayer and a couple of photos as we sat on the shoulder of the interstate…for a couple of hours. The vehicle cranked back up and we hobbled along a few more miles and then blew a tire on the trailer. We changed the tire but the fuel problem just wasn’t getting any better so we had to tow the SUV and the trailer. Ever tried finding a mechanic open on the 4th of July? Yeah. We had some friends in Statesboro who had a friend that knew a part-time mechanic that was sort of off the beaten path and we found an auto parts store that had the fuel filter. Fuel filter swapped out, we headed back down the road but didn’t get far and discovered that not only was the filter bad, we had now burned up the fuel pump also. Now things were getting critical. For those of you that are familiar with the prep time required for this drama, you know we usually begin setting up on Thursday for a Sunday event. Would we have to cancel? It wasn’t looking good. We dropped the SUV back off with the mechanic and found another parts store that had the fuel pump. We drove back to Statesboro, got the part and delivered to the mechanic…only to find out the next day that the parts store gave us the wrong fuel pump. Delayed again. Long story short, instead of arriving to Valdosta Thursday morning, we arrived at midnight Fri night/Sat morning. Thankfully, some dear friends from Wilson and some other dear friends from Tampa FL (thank you Charles, Jenny, Gary, and Lisa) met us here and working together as a team and with the Lord’s help, we managed to set this thing up in 1 day! Pastor Wayne Hughes graciously brought us dinner so we could keep working around the clock and somehow it all worked out. It had been an exhausting, stressful few days, but we could not wait to see what God was going to do (and why the devil had been fighting so hard)! The altar service was the proof as at least 7 people came forward to accept Christ!!!!!!! Many others were visibly moved, and of course, only God knows the full results. To God be the glory!!!
It was great to see some old familiar faces (it’s been 30 yrs since we attended church with these wonderful people), and we met lots of new people. The team is exhausted, but we are sooo excited that God is still alive and well and that no weapon formed against us shall prosper! God’s grace is still available to whosoever will. Keep us in your prayers as we do our part to “Tell It Again”…
