Experiencing God's Provision

Hello, friends!

I have a fun story to share with you about how God provides in the midst of chaos.

Last Friday and Saturday, Meg was invited up to Iowa to train the staff team there on International Student Ministry. The plan was to drive up to Pella (about 3 hours north) in the morning, spend the afternoon there, then head to Cedar Falls (another 2 hours north) to catch an International Potluck at the University of Northern Iowa. We would spend the night in Cedar Falls, then in the morning, Meg would meet with some student leaders at UNI, then we would drive home. My job was to be on Ezra duty for the weekend, which would consist of exploring Central College's campus (in Pella), putting him to bed Friday night, and playing in the hotel pool Saturday morning. I know, being a dad is tough, right? =0).

We drove up to Pella and as soon as we exited the highway, the warning lights came on for Schmeevus (our car). I'd never seen these particular lights light up before so I knew something was wrong but I also knew we only had 2 miles to get to campus. Surely Shmeevus could make it 2 miles, right?

Nope...

We were about 2 blocks from Central College's campus when Schmeevus decided that he didn't want to go anymore. He put himself into neutral, and I coasted into a neighborhood so I could call AAA for a tow.

Thankfully, we were only 2 blocks from campus so we were able to eat lunch with the staff team and then Meg could still do her training while one of our coworkers watched Ezra so I could go back to the car and wait for the tow.

Note: This is how far into rural Iowa we were: AAA didn't have any tow trucks within 20 miles of where we were. I waited about 2 hours for the truck to come.

Still, we got the tow and our Regional Director, who lives in town, was kind enough to pick me up from the mechanic (that he recommended), and take me to the car rental spot. Because it was about 3pm on a Friday afternoon, the mechanic said that he wouldn't be able to look at it until Monday.

Our plan had now changed. The new plan was to rent a car, head up to UNI, go straight back home Saturday, and use the rental at least until Monday when the mechanic would hopefully tell us what was wrong with the car. Then, I'd meet our regional director somewhere in between Pella and Columbia, swap cars, and he would return the renal while I would drive our car back to CoMO. It wasn't great, but it worked.

Immedately, we made a quick switch. Since our RD was going to need a rental on Monday anyway, we instead would take his car and he would take the rental just a few days early. That way, we could at least save on some gas.

So, we get the car then head back to the mechanic so we can take all the stuff out of Schmeevus and put it into his car that I would be driving. While I'm doing this, our RD, who knows everybody in town, asks the mechanic if there was anyway for him to take a look at the car that day, as we were out of towners. I'm not sure if he slipped him a $20, gave him the secret Pella handshake, the mecahnic recognized him from church, or there was some White people code language he used, but the mechanic said he would, "see what he could do."

About an hour later, I get a call saying this:
- They were able to get the car into take a look at it.
- When they tried to start the car, it started up and drove no problems
- They did a diagnostic anyway and had 3 error codes come up, which means it's usually a mass flow sensor issue (or something like that)
- They just so happened to have the part in stock
- The cost was considerably less than I had anticipated and it'd be ready by 5:30.

New plan: We still took the RD's car up to UNI but on the way back, we went back to Pella, had lunch, swapped cars again, and rode Schmeevus back to CoMO, right on schedule.

In case you were keeping score at home, here are the cool spots of God's provision:
- We didn't break down until we were practically at our first destination
- We broke down with enough time to get it fixed
- The mechanic was able to see the car before Monday
- The fix was easy and relatively cheap

I'm sure there are others but those are the highlights. The moral of the story: Jesus is pretty awesome.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam