We were recently having one of those southern thunderstorms- the ones that make you glad that you are home when they hit. Only this time we weren’t! We had taken Gail’s mom shopping, and got caught in the storm on our way home.
We DO NOT go out in bad weather, or even when bad weather is forecast, but this storm hit so unexpectedly that it caught us by surprise. (Mom is in a wheelchair- and the last thing that we need is to get stuck somewhere in the van when she is with us. So we all stay home when the weatherman says that bad weather is on its way.)
Well, that night we got caught by surprise. It was a nice summer night; the sky was sunny and beautiful; then literally within 2 minutes the sky darkened and the rain hit- BOOM! Flash flooding, with so much water running on the side of the road that I had to pull the van off the road and wait until the torrential downpour stopped long enough for me to even be able to see to drive.
And we all prayed that God would stop the rain so that we could get home before dark. (The only thing that is worse than driving in the pouring rain is to do it in the dark, when you cannot see where the flash flooding currents are!)
We sat for about 10 minutes, and the rain stopped. Praise God!!
In North Carolina the storms stop just as suddenly as they start!
So we pulled back out onto the road and headed home.
The back road that we were on was so flooded that I could only drive 7 miles per hour, but it felt like I was going 60! I also had to drive on the wrong side of the road because the road had a torrent of water running on it-covering my entire lane. Then the unthinkable happened; a car was coming towards us- in the other direction! UGH!!!
I had no choice except to drive through the literal small river that was running down the road in my lane. And about as soon as I pulled into it- having slowed down to only 5 miles per hour- I could not steer the van! The steering wheel had all but totally locked up, and all I could do was to pull off the road and sit.
So we all three assessed the situation. The rain had stopped and we were only about 2 miles from home- in a parking lot in the BAD part of town (which we didn’t want mom to know!) in ankle deep rushing water. There was NO WAY the van was going anywhere- not under its own power anyway.
“So what do we do?” was the next question on all of our minds.
I thought of Paul and Silas in prison in Acts 16. When they were in a bad situation they praised the Lord! (Now our situation was nowhere near what Paul and Silas went through, but in our own way, it was pretty bad.)
So we decided to praise the Lord- and thank Him for whatever it was that we could think of at the time to be thankful for!
1. God is in control- and would never leave us nor forsake us, because His word says so!;
2. He would get us safely home;
3. It was only 9:30 pm- so one of our neighbors was still up and could come take mom home;
4. We have AAA so they could tow the van home;
5. We have a wonderful mechanic- and we knew that he would fix whatever was wrong and not over charge us;
6. THE RAIN HAD STOPPED!!!! YEAH!!
7. We had broken down where there was parking lot to pull off the road into;
8. We were not on I85 or in heavy traffic in a city somewhere!
9. We have a cell phone so that we could call for help.
The first call that we made was to mom’s next door neighbor and she came and took mom home.
Then we called AAA- and almost 3 hours later we were towed home; and were safe and sound in our own home again.
Our mechanic came over to our house as soon as he was able to and fixed the van- turns out that the rushing water had pushed the power steering belt off the pulleys that hold it in place.
WOW!!
God is so good. He is always looking out for His children.
…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5