You’re kidding…we’re out of gas?!

So after our youth service last night around 7:30, we were driving home, just like any other Saturday night, looking forward to an evening of mediocre leftover pizza and a movie with David and Kristina. A few minutes after we left the church, Chase said “the car is driving really strange”. My first thought: Oh my goodness. Car trouble again! We just bought this car – please don’t let it be another ‘93 Honda Civic mess all over again! Lord, you know how much I loathe breaking down in the middle of the road, especially after having done it 20 or 30ish times in the aforementioned Civic. Please, please, please, let the car go back to normal and everything be ok.” While these thoughts were taking place, our car was slowing to a stop, as it had turned off. I feared the worst, but Chase said “I think we are out of gas” and strangely, while we both felt stupid (even though the gauge said we still had a quarter tank and the fuel light never turned on), I was comforted. Ok, we need gas then. We call Jeremy (our boss) who wouldn’t be far away and he agreed to come and see what he could do. He comes, Chase and Jeremy talk for awhile about what to do and then it’s decided that Jeremy will go get a 3-liter bottle (a Nica taxi driver’s recommendation) full of diesel for us. Jeremy gets in to turn on his car, and the battery is dead, as he had left his lights on. Next, we call David, who graciously comes and brings us the 3-liter bottle of diesel (pictured below). We put it in, try to start the car, and lo and behold, our battery has died as well. We had our headlights on to prevent us from getting hit (we were stopped in the middle of the road, right after a curve) and it turned out unfavorably for us. Oh, and at that moment, our gas light came on. Thanks for that. So David jumps Jeremy’s car, then tries to help us jump ours. As we are attempting to do us, another Nicaraguan man comes by and tells us that when a diesel car runs out of gas, you can’t just put in more gas and start it up…especially with a dead battery. By this time it is 9:00pm.

We call a guy, Jason, who just happens to know absolutely everything about cars and whose ministry is partly to be a mechanic for missionaries. We know he is extremely busy, but hope he can give us some insight as to what to do. We call, and he says he’s on his way. He arrives and says we will need a lot more gas. So David, again, goes to the gas station for us and fills up that beloved 3-liter bottle again, along with another car fluid container of some type. Meanwhile, Jason and his neighbor who came along for the ride, Dave, were tinkering under the hood to restore fuel pressure, connecting 2 different sets of jumper cables to their car and ours, and hand pumping something else, while another Nica guy turns up from nowhere and “helps” them by using his cell phone as a dim flashlight. David comes back with gas, and the starting attempts begin. They pump, rev the other car’s engine, Chase tries to start ours. No luck. Again. No luck. Again. No luck. Over and over this went on. I was losing hope, when all of a sudden, it worked. All I could say was “Praise the Lord!”

Chase and I have been feeling a little lonely, friendless, and sorry for ourselves recently, but maybe this was God’s way of reminding us about what a great community we are blessed with. We so appreciate the help of Jeremy, David, Jason, and Dave, and can’t help but think about what we would have done without them. Lock the doors, cry, and sit tight til morning, maybe. So glad we found our way home eventually, even if it was 10:15 PM. And the best part, we had that leftover pizza waiting for us. 

Wellness, Prayer, and Laminin

Friday night I got really sick. I was absolutely miserable. I can’t remember ever feeling so horrible in all my life. My sweet husband was up most of the night with me and then had to get up and go to the kids service, had added responsibilities since I couldn’t be there, and didn’t complain once. He loved and served me completely the whole time I was sick, which I was so grateful for. But the funny thing about when I am sick is that all I can think about, long for, beg God for, is to be well. When I’m well, I don’t usually think about how good it feels to be well and most days I don’t thank God for the opportunity to not be sick that day.

Abby and Chrissie are both really sick right now. Abby is a precious 4 year old girl who was adopted from Guatemala. Abby has leukemia and has been undergoing chemo for 773 days. She still has 213 left. Her body is falling apart, and there is a constant fear of relapse, or worse, (in some ways) death. The Riggs family of 9 (7 kids) longs for the normal days, days of wellness for Abby. Chrissie, although I’ve been introduced to her story only recently, is a 4 year old girl adopted from Serbia.  I don’t know her whole story, but I do know that she has problems with her heart, and after having her chest opened up 3 times yesterday, she died. She was dead for 20 minutes but the Lord brought her back. She is alive via machines, but her parents have full hope “that when our King of Kings restores Chrissie's health, she will dance her way out of this hospital.”

Both of these stories remind me how precious life is. How thankful I am to not be in their shoes. They also remind me of the hope that we have and the God that we can trust. They remind me how important prayer is and how precious God’s children are to him. They make me thankful for technology, that even though I have only met Abby once and I have never met Chrissie, I can follow their stories, pray with them in the hard times, rejoice with them in the good times, and all the while, trust Christ with them, and all of this, from Nicaragua. And they make me thankful for the normal, mundane, day-to-day life, the life that these families long for.

Will you pray for healing for Abby and Chrissie? I can’t imagine having to watch a child go through what these little girls are going through. My mom had to do it, as my oldest brother Jon had leukemia when he was 2. Will you pray that Abby’s leukemia never returns, that chemo would be effective, and that God would heal all of the many other health issues that have risen in Abby’s little body? And will you pray that Chrissie would survive, that they can turn off the life support machines, that her good lung would be emptied of the fluid it is filled with, and that Chrissie would, in fact, dance her way out of the hospital?

We serve a good God. A faithful God. A God who longs to hear our prayers. A God who desires to heal his people. A God who will be glorified. And a God whose will will be done. He is a universe maker and a heart former. And He promises us that He will hold us together. And that He will work all things together for good.

Check out this video to see an excerpt from one of Louie Giglio’s sermons about how, more specifically, God holds us together, through His son Jesus (and Laminin). Incredible. A great use of your next 8 minutes. Man, we have a great God!