The Lord has given us a busy schedule right now and we praise Him for what He is doing in our lives. He has also kept us safe through some difficult circumstances and we would like to share the story of some of His protection.
On Saturday, October 3, 2009, we loaded up the truck and trailer and left Wayland, MO headed for Horn Lake, MS in the greater Memphis area. The trip was uneventful, the only kind you like to have, until we got into the Memphis metropolitan area. We pulled into a Flying J in West Memphis, AR to dump our sewage tanks before continuing the short distance on to the church. Because the line of RV’s was long, we found ourselves waiting in line to get to where we could turn the rig and dump our tanks.
I got out of the truck and walked around to the passenger side of the rig, continuing down that side to where the trailer door is. As I walked, I noticed that one of the trailer tires was skewed badly, so much so that it rubbed on the fiberglass tire skirt that partially hides the tops of my tires. Closer inspection revealed that of the eight lug bolts and nuts that hold the tire on the trailer, all but two of them had broken off and were gone. How long we went with only two lugs no one really knows, but if they had been gone for long, the tire would have probably come flying off somewhere on the Interstate. (Maybe it could have found a comfortable place next to our awning, who knows.) In the end, the tire was still connected at the service station and we endeavored to get the trailer out of the main flow of fueling traffic.
As I pulled the rig slowly toward the nearest parking area, Sarah, who was outside keeping a close eye on the tire, had to halt me. Had I gone on, the tire would have broken completely off. The truck and trailer now completely blocked the entire parking, except that one vehicle could fit in front of the truck and another behind the trailer. Here we sat and I immediately went to work jacking up the trailer hoping against hope that I could find the lug bolts I needed and get the wheel installed in time to get to our next meeting.
After some work, I was able to get the tire and hub off and began the process of trying to extract the broken pieces of lug bolt that still lodged in the hub. Meanwhile, two men from the church in north MS met me at the Flying J and we three headed off to try to find the lugs we needed.
One of the most important aspects of the work of the evangelist is that the majority of his work is done outside of normal business hours. His longest consecutive hours occur on Saturday and Sunday, while his weekdays hours are often when others have closed up for the night. Though I have never taken official polls, I would venture to guess that most breakdowns for evangelists occur on Saturday when the most helpful businesses are closed. At least that was true in Memphis when my trailer broke down. We looked at store after store and each one of them informed us that they would not be able to give us the bolts we needed.
After a lot of time and energy spent, we finally decided to rig up something that would at least get us out of the Flying J parking lot and, we hoped, all the way to the church. Undersized bolts might be able to be tightened down to where they would hold, we reasoned, if we took the back roads and took it slow. Not liking the option, but knowing of no other, I purchased the temporary bolts and put them into the hub. Off we went, slowly headed south along roads other than the Interstate. When we finally eased into the church parking lot, all eight of the temporary lug nuts on the temporary bolts were so loose, you could spin them with your fingers. In any case, they got us there without injury to the truck or trailer, apart from a broken trailer skirt on the passenger side.
The following Monday, we looked all over Memphis for half a day before finally finding the right lugs. They are now installed and ready for another 100,000 miles or so. Praise the Lord! While working on the lugs, I also discovered that my brake assembly was completely shot and had to be replaced. The Lord supplied that just in time, too: the part came on Friday afternoon and I got it all put back together just as we were leaving to eat with the church people in the fellowship hall before the service.
Last week, while in Ruston, LA, I determined to check the rest of my brake assemblies to see how they were doing. All that I checked seemed to be perfect, but in the process, I noticed that a bolt was missing from one of my leaf springs. Thank the Lord, that leaf spring did not break while we were going down the road. God is so good to us!
After preaching this coming Sunday in Citronelle, AL, we will head back home for the first time in several months. The Lord has given us a wonderful fall season and that season is not yet over, though it will be somewhat less dramatic because we will not have the trailer for many of the remaining meetings of the year.
At the end of the day, we still thank God for the trailer that He has given us, even if we do have problems from time to time. The benefit of being able to have the family together as we travel is priceless, and we would have it no other way.
Thank you so much for your prayers for us as we travel.
Paul
