The spring round of meetings has begun for the Crow
family! Traveling, singing, preaching,
ministering every night to churches and individuals in and out of the services
is now in full swing. The biggest news
from our family is that we are now traveling without our fifth wheel travel
trailer, our home on wheels. It all happened
something like this.
It was a dark and stormy night… No, seriously, we had a lot
of problems with the trailer last year.
Broken leaf springs, broken slide out mechanisms, a failed axle—all these
were issues that we had to deal with in 2018.
In an attempt to fix these issues, I took the trailer in to a place
called Custom Spring in Memphis, Tennessee, in December. After repairing and strengthening the
springs, the shop manager strongly recommended to me that I trade the trailer
in. From that shop, the trailer went to
the RV repair shop to get the slide out problem repaired. After looking at the issues there, the RV shop
manager strongly recommended to me that we trade the trailer in.
Wondering what God’s will might be for us in this matter, I
began looking at different RV options for us.
I found no suitable floor plans that I felt that we could use, at least
none under $125,000. Accordingly, we
pursued a plan of repairing the existing trailer and moving on from there.
The problem is that one of our I-beams (not the latest Apple
product, but a large piece of steel on which the trailer sits) has lost its
camber, twisted, in layman’s terms. This
twist has caused a lot of problems: the slide out issues, the broken leaf
springs, the government shutdown, climate change, illegal immigration, hair loss—you
get the picture.
Three companies are involved in the repair of this
problem. First of all, there is a
company that provided an extended (5 year) warranty for the trailer. They are claiming, of course, that they do
not need to pay because of a technicality in the original contract. The dealership is looking for the original
right now so that we can prove our point to the warranty company.
The second company involved is the trailer
manufacturer. They are claiming that if
there is a problem with the I-beam, that it is not their fault but that of the beam
manufacturer (the third company). In
order for them to turn in the claim to the manufacturer, someone must take very
precise measurements of the beam so that they begin the process.
All of this sounds very tedious and time consuming to
me. We would love to be in our trailer
once again to be at home while we travel, but that is not possible at this
time. Instead, our home church has
loaned us a 5 x 8 cargo trailer into which we have packed our belongings and are
currently staying wherever we can find a place.
The difficulty is in finding available prophet’s chambers along our
southern route to California. It is
missions conference time for many of the churches that we know and that means
that their prophet’s chambers are booked.
For 15 years, I never thought about booking prophet’s chambers. Now I know that it is usually best to call 6
months in advance.
I am excited to hear of churches in their preparation
efforts for upcoming meetings. Cottage
prayer meetings, church prayer meetings, 40 days of prayer and fasting—these kinds
of things excite an evangelist as he goes into a meeting, knowing that the
prayer preparation will lead to miracles from God. In the final analysis, our trailer troubles fit
into the category of “light affliction,” according to the Apostle Paul; and
like his woes under that same heading, these things work for us.
Our trailer problems will be resolved in God’s way and in
His time. In the meantime, please pray
for souls to be saved, for Christians to surrender to God, and for churches
to be revived.
