God Heals Carrie's Car

The day Carrie and Rose left to help with a VBS in North Dakota, Carrie’s car suddenly wouldn’t start. Crystal found this out when she went to park Carrie’s car in another spot. The car had been running fine that very morning, but suddenly, for no explainable reason, it wouldn’t start. 

Would Carrie have to ride the horse to get anywhere when she got home??

 

We had to push the car into another parking spot out of the way of the rest of our vehicles. All the time Carrie and Rose were gone, the car refused to run. I myself went out and cleaned the battery terminals. That is often a simple issue that fixes a starting problem. We even charged the already mostly charged battery. And added gasoline, just in case.
But nothing worked. The car would not start. 

(Horse, you better get practiced up for 30-mile drives.)

I felt it was a direct attack from the devil, because he likes to attack our vehicles, our finances, our marriage, and plenty of other things almost EVERY time we go out to do ministry. The fact that it happened for no reason on the day the girls flew up to help at Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation was telltale.

There is only one way to resist this kind of thing.

We prayed. 

When Carrie and Rose arrived safely back home, and the car still would not start, I still felt it was a spiritual battle going on. We prayed about it in family worship, and I in  my heart asked specifically, “Jesus, would You heal Carrie’s car?”

The night Carrie and Rose came home, Jonathan towed Carrie’s car to a mechanic up the road.
The next morning, the mechanic called Jonathan.
“We have a problem,” he said.

“Oh, no!” Jonathan thought. “How many thousand dollars will Carrie have to spend to fix it?”
But the mechanic’s voice sounded lighthearted.
“We have a problem,” he had said, and now added, “When I tried to start the car, it started right up!”

The mechanic didn’t know what to think. He suggested that perhaps a wire was loose and in the process of towing the car to the mechanic, something jiggled and whatever may have been shorting out jiggled back into place.

I have a different explanation, whether a wire was involved or not.

I think God healed Carrie’s car. And He gets all the glory.

It has been starting and running ever since.

Now tomorrow (in the same car, so we need lots of faith!) 

Carrie, Hannah and I are planning to drive to Missouri to spend a day and a half with my parents. My mother has had a very low spell and has been very weak with little or no appetite. My dad had just been told that his kidneys were failing, and before they knew all the details, it really overwhelmed them. The situation ended up not being quite as dire as the first doctor sounded, but still, my dad is on a very restricted diet and Mom was overwhelmed with trying to manage to cook meals for him without any grains. Not easy even if you are young and in the best of health.

My youngest sister Kezia from Illinois was down a couple weeks ago for a couple days to help clean and cook for them, and it is my turn to go this week. Next week Craig and Susanna plan to be down for a whole week in Missouri. We siblings are all trying to take turns.

At the same time, Jonathan has been asked to speak later this week at a men's/boys' retreat in western Colorado on on the subject of blending occupation and ministry.  

So while I travel east, he and the boys travel west

Prayers would be appreciated for us as we travel hither and yon, for the men's retreat, and for my parents. 

I need to go pack and make meatballs to take along.