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Our Van Towed to the Transmission Repair
Waiting But Working!
Working and Resting
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SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 "We are blessed, we are blessed, by our Father we are blessed!"
This has become our theme song as a ministry. This is one line from a song in His Story, our number 2 musical. It is closely related to a line in one of the songs in our new Christmas musical, Perspectives Of Christmas, Will God receive the glory when the story is told?
We are on our way to Lincoln, Nebraska to begin our west coast 8-week tour. We are traveling in our newly donated conversion van, or should I say, were traveling. Just outside Columbus, Indiana, the transmission quit working. We took this van to mechanics to be checked out and even a transmission specialist before this trip began. One mechanic wanted to buy it from us and the transmission shop said it was in good shape. So when this
happened, I asked, what are we supposed to learn from this?
Ill tell you. Who do you call when you are stranded, far from home and family, without resources for housing, no vehicle, a large trailer that must be towed somewhere, and 6 people to feed, etc. We called Central Assembly of God in Vero Beach, FL
(the home church of Steve and Linda SHort) to get the names and phone numbers of Assembly of God churches near Columbus, Indiana. The first church was in the middle of a disaster of their own, trying to restore water service to their building, before the wedding of the pastors son in 2 days! The second church called a friend who ministers to the homeless and also provides emergency housing for victims of domestic violence.
Well, this was an emergency, so the sheriff picked us up and brought us to the motel they use for emergency housing. Our van was towed to a transmission shop. In the middle of all this, the first churchs pastor called and said that they would help us if
the Short's pastor, Buddy Tipton would vouch for us. Steve called Central Assembly again and everyone was gone for the day except the bookkeeper. She somehow relayed the message to Pastor Buddy. He called us and the pastor in Columbus. Our pastor assured this other pastor that if he helped us, it would be taken care of. Being Wednesday night, Pastor Buddy announced our predicament to the church and received an offering and the transmission repair is being paid. All of this happened within three hours!
As we awoke this morning, we realized the great favor we have from the body of Christ. We are not alone, no matter where we are or what happens to us. God has given our ministry team favor with a number of churches, across denominational lines. In West Virginia, the Shorts attend a Pentecostal Holiness church, who had decided to give us their church van, before we had the conversion van donated at a Baptist church in North Carolina that treats us like they are our home church. Our church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Bluefield, WV allows us to use their sanctuary for rehearsals, etc. and supports us in every way. We do some of our writing in a Methodist church in Bramwell, WV using a key that has been entrusted to us. There are Assembly of God, pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. that work with us to tell the story of Jesus when churches do not have enough people to provide 12 disciples for our plays. WE ARE BLESSED! If all of this ended tomorrow, we are still blessed because our anchor, the Lord Jesus Christ, holds securely. It wont end tomorrow because we have eight weeks of commitment ahead of us.
The end of this chapter - our van is
ready as of 2:30 PM and through a special offering taken last
night at Central Assembly in FL, we have all the money needed
for the repair bill.
God is good all the time!!
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