Date: March 17th 2008

Hi friends,

    You may have been wondering why you haven't heard much from us recently.  Well we've moved and here's the short version of the story.  (We could probably write a book on our experiences in the last couple months.  Satan really did not want us to leave, and this became very apparent at one point.  But we'll save that for another email.)

    Kelly and I had been discussing moving to Idaho for years, but we just had not agreed until a couple months ago.  One of the reasons being I wanted to work at the Pacific Press.  A few weeks after our new baby girl Jordan was born, the topic came up again, and as we discussed it Kelly said, "where you go, I will follow."  After praying about it, and further discussion over the next few days we decided to put our property up for sale as a fleece as to the Lord's will.  We thought this would be an excellent fleece since the economy in Michigan is one of the worst in the US.  What turned up was clearly an amazing series of miracles!  We hope you take the time and enjoy reading about them.

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Miracle #1
The Half Hour Property Sale

    One of our neighbors had been asking us for some time about buying a piece of our property for some time, so we decided to ask him if he wanted to purchase the whole property, before we put it on the market as for sale.  After asking him, he told us that he did not have the money, but that he knew someone that might be interested.

    Approximately a half hour later we had a cash offer!  It was for an amount that allowed us to sell the property at an approximately break even price for the amount we had into the buildings, utilities and properties.  Too us this was a clear sign of the Lord's leading.  While houses and lands all over Michigan are selling for large losses, or can't be sold at all, the fact that ours sold so quickly and for such a reasonable price was simply a miracle!

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Miracle #2
Loaded & Moved Out, Just in Time

    After selling the property we had to get very busy getting ready to move.  Kelly was not able to do much work after having a c-section birth, so I had to get busy.  VERY BUSY.  Within 60 days I had to get all the vehicles prepared for a 2000 mile trip across the country, sell off unwanted items, get rid of several old vehicles, and load everything else.  We decided to repair a large International flatbed truck that we had, and it took a LOT of work, but finally it was done.  The Lord helped us to sell off most of the most unwanted items, and unwanted vehicles.  And thanks to friends, family, and church members, we had everything loaded and moved out just in time.

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    After moving off our property we realized that we still just had too much "stuff" and we took some time to thin down our possessions even more.  This proved to be in our best interest as you'll see later on.  We also decided to repair a brake problem on the big truck that had been plaguing us for some time which would also come into play later.

    While I had driven the big truck around with what is called an "F" (farm) endorsement in Michigan, it is not truly a commercial drivers license.  Because of the trucks weight rating it requires that it's driver have a minimum of a CDL class "B" to drive it across the country.  We decided to spend the time and money and get the CDL class "A" (full size semi) drivers license.  The cost wasn't much more and we thought it might be a good idea for me to have the full CDLA in the future.

    After studying the Michigan CDL book, and passing all the remaining written tests, I finally thought I was ready for the driving test.  I prayed and drove down to Grand Rapids for the test.  I had thought that they would probably give me a short cab and trailer truck for the test.  HA!  I asked my driving test administrator, and he explained that all they had was a 65' rig for the test.  It was at that point I have to admit I was now a bit scared.  But I knew it was what had to be done.  After paying the $320 non-refundable test/truck rental fee we headed out for the three part test.  I'll explain a little here for those who aren't familiar with the CDL test.  It's a three part test, the first being a maintenance type walk around of the truck where you walk around the truck and explain everything you'd be checking for a safety inspection.  That portion alone takes approximately 1 hour.  Part one takes you through starting the truck, and explaining everything you are checking as you go, as well as a very detailed air brake test.  Section two is a parking lot maneuver type test consisting of several parts in itself.  You must drive forward and make a right hand turn around a cone coming as close to it as possible without running it over or touching it.  Then you must drive forward to a set of cones and park as close as you can to them without the front of your truck going past them.  Next you must back the truck down a simulated very narrow alley of cones without crossing any of them or running them over.  Then for you must back the trailer into a simulated loading dock of cones, at a right angle to the your starting point while in a simulated alley.  If you fail any one of the sections you fail the whole test, lose ALL your money, and must retake the test again at another cost of $320.  Needless to say we didn't want to do this twice.

    While praying constantly, we went through the start engine and brake test.  Failure of the brake test in any way is a failure of the entire test so the pressure was on.  With the Lord's help, I caught a mistake I made in the middle of the brake test and redid it, before the tester stopped it.  He allowed me to correct myself and I managed to pass that portion with a score of 93%.  Whew, one down, two to go.

    As I started the parking lot maneuver portion of the test I prayed again.  I got into the truck by myself and looked in the mirrors.  I cannot describe the feeling of sheer terror my stomach was giving me at that moment.  Most people prior to their CDL test have spent many many hours with intructors and coaches, and here I am, sitting behind the wheel of a full size semi truck for the first time in my life, AND I'M ON MY DRIVING TEST!  I pulled forward and made my right turn around the cone, never having driven a semi truck before, and I made my turn.  The truck did not turn anything like I expected it to and I must have parked the rear trailer tires a good 6 feet away from the cone.  But the driving intructor either had mercy on me or was very patient.  So the test continued.  Next, and easier part.  I pulled forward to a set of cones and stopped just short of them.  This part was not too different than driving my own truck.  Then I backed through an alley of cones.  I have always been very good at backing since we used to have a very long driveway at my parents house, and I have always had trailers to back down it for various chores.  I backed through the cones, no problem.  Now came the part I was worried about.  The 90 loading dock while in an alley.  My first attempt I saw was not going to work out, and I had already squished one cone, so I went for try number two.  You get marked off for crossing lines, squishing cones, and 1 point for every direction change in this part.  Try number two worked out fairly well, and I got the trailer settled near the back.  I passed with a maximum of 9 points out of a possible 9 you could miss.  WHEW.  I figured I'd pass the road test, no problem.  I was starting to get confident.

        I can't remember whether I prayed before we pulled out of the parking lot or not.  My emotions were running pretty high, and maybe my self confidence got the best of me, but off we went.  I realized I was in trouble when I had to bring the full size semi to a complete stop just 100 feet out of the driveway because I could not get it into second gear.  Unknown to me until after the test, and NOT mentioned in the CDL book, most large trucks have what is called a "clutch brake."  This simply means that if you push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor it stops the front of the transmission.  While this is a great feature to get the truck into gear from a dead stop, it's a not so handy feature trying to shift into any other gear.  So here's the basics of how you shift it, all the way to the floor for first, and halfway to the floor for every other gear.  Seems easy enough, unless your foot has been clutching to the floor your whole life.  Not to mention 10 gears with a electric splitter on the stick, and "double clutching."  It's enough to drive anyone completely nuts with frustration.  Anyway, I got moving again finally but was just massacring the gears.  I was having so much trouble with the gears I didn't stop for a railroad track, blatantly ran a red light, ran over one curb with the trailer, parked in front of a fire hydrant, and cut off numerous people several times.  My guardian angel must have just been shaking his head and putting in for hazard pay.  I wouldn't have been surprised if my recording angel had to drop his pen a couple times and join in keeping everyone safe!  My driving tester was very patient with me, as he could have stopped the test several times and driven me back.  But I kept noticing him making marks on his sheet which made me more tense.  Anyway, I failed the road test.  As I remember, I got 37 points, and the maximum you could get was 29.  OUCH.  The tester let me continue to drive kindly so I could get a bit more experience.  I went home feeling like such a failure.  I had lost $320, botched my driving test, and still couldn't even legally drive my own truck interstate.

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Miracle #3
Passed the CDL "A" Test, With No Drivers Training

    Well, I'll shorten round two a lot.  Because of scheduling problems we retook the test in Cadillac which an hour north of where we were.  Of all the coincidences I got the same test instructor!  Long story short, and many miracles and jokes later, I PASSED the CDL test.  Although my tester did joke that he wouldn't be leaving to go home right away with me on the road!

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    Unfortunately the failed driving test, as well as several other setbacks took their toll on what was left of our meager savings from the sale of our place and we no longer had enough to make the trip.

Miracle #4
Miracle Money

    We do not feel comfortable disclosing the details of a series of miracles involving financial aid, but needless to say God noticed the kindness shown by friends, family, and even complete strangers.  "If you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me."  Word's cannot express how thankful we are for all the help.  You know who you are.

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    Finally the day came when everything was "ready" for the first trip of two across the country.  After storing the vehicles for the second trip and with the threat of another Michigan blizzard on the way we decided to move the truck from where it had been out to a truck stop so we would not get snowed in.  This plan introduced another problem, but was also providential as you'll see later.

    Amazing the blizzard never really materialized, but what did come was BITTER cold.  After getting a good nights rest we headed out to the truck stop to start the truck and get on the road.  The second we stepped outside our breath was pretty much taken away by the wind and cold.  It was now -17 degrees F outside.  (That's 49 degrees below freezing for those of you in warmer climates.)  While the batteries on the big truck were in good condition, and had been on charge the whole time we were repacking they were NO match for that weather.  While in good shape, the engine in the big truck is an old mechanical turbo diesel that does not have "glow" plugs.  So you start it in cold weather by giving it a shot of starting fluid.  Well I gave it a good shot of starting fluid, prayed and turned the key.  The answer to my prayer came immediately.  The engine turned over so slowly it made no difference what we did.  We double jumped it with both our car and pickup simultaneously and it just made no difference.  Even with four good large batteries, and two running engines producing another 120 or so amps it would not crank any faster.  It was just too cold.  One thing about a diesel is the fact that you must use a "block heater" in cold weather to keep the inside of the motor and oil warm enough to crank fast enough for ignition.  While "Big Bertha" had a block heater, we had taken the chance that we would be able to restart it at the truck stop rather than get snowed in at the warehouse again.  Well here we were, not snowed in at all, but too cold to start.  Where the truck was parked at the truck stop we were way too far from any electricity to run a cord.

    There was really only one option left, and no, that wasn't wait for spring!  After praying again, Kelly and I talked it over, and decided to go purchase a small generator to heat the block up so we could get going.  We went out comparison shopping and after careful consideration found a nice 3500 watt generator at Menards for a very reasonable price.

    After repacking the pickup so we could even fit it in, we ran it over to the truck, locked it under the cab and fired it up.  It ran perfectly, and so we took off to get a few other errands done while we waited.  We not only plugged in the block heater, but also put the batteries on charge.  By the time we had got back the top of the engine was almost hot to the touch, and Bertha fired up like a warm summer day.  (It was still so cold outside that I almost couldn't breathe unless I had a scarf over my mouth and nose.)  Finally we were off!

    The first part of the trip was rather uneventful and we just did a lot of driving.  We were able to get clear into Illinois before hitting a rest stop to get some sleep.  Here's where providence began to kick in.  Because we had bought the generator we were able to not only run the block heater all night instead of running Bertha's engine, but we were able to run a space heater in the pickup so we would not have to run it's engine while we slept to keep warm either.  This proved to save an immense amount of gas and was literally a life saver as you'll see later.

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Miracle #5
Saved From Any Number of Terrible Accidents

    Again here's where more of God's providence began to kick in.  We had scaled Bertha before we had left, and were aware that we were most likely a bit overweight, but the truck was so tightly packed and tarped that we really did not want to unpack it and unload some items.  As we passed the scales one by one, they were all surprisingly closed.  Fines for being overweight are very mean as they are a commercial fine.

    As we drove into the next night again the Lord's hand became evident.  I was driving Bertha towing our 30' travel trailer, both full of items.  Kelly was following driving our pickup and towing our little car on a dolly.  As we had driven along the safety chains between the trailer and truck had dropped off a couple times after hitting large potholes.  They would spark a bit and Kelly would get on the CB radio and let me know and I'd stop and fix them.  No big deal.  Well this bitterly cold night in Iowa, I was driving along when  felt a large bump.  Driving Bertha is full of such "bumps" so I thought nothing of it.  Just a few seconds later Kelly got on the radio and said that there were large showers of sparks coming from under the trailer.  I knew I had not run over anything so I carefully slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder.  I stopped and ran back expecting the safety chain thing again.  They were both attached.  I looked closer, and I suddenly realized that the entire hitch on the big truck was literally tearing right off the truck!  It was literally hanging there by just a "thread" of metal.  As the hitch had begun to come off it had dropped the skid plate to the tongue jack on the travel trailer to the ground allowing the full weight of the tongue (around 1000 lbs loaded) to skid down the highway on it.  This is what had sent out the showers of sparks.  Had it not been night time Kelly probably would not have seen the sparks to warn me.  Had the hitch completely failed and come off the travel trailed with most of our possessions inside would have been destroyed as it careened off the highway and strewn it's contents all over.  It could have even rolled and involved Kelly (with little baby Jordan) driving behind it in a terrible accident.  Had it come off in the mountains instead of the flat plains, again the result could have been very different.  Because it was late at night there were only a few cars out on I80, this also was about to become providential.

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Miracle #6
A State Trooper Safety Escort

    While I had a welding torch with me on the big truck I didn't feel exactly comfortable welding on it alongside the shoulder of I80.  I talked to Kelly and we made the decision to drive the truck & trailer ever so carefully the 2 miles to the next exit, where we could hopefully find a place to weld it up again.  Well, I could only drive about 1-2 miles per hour, so the drive to the next exit was taking forever.  Along the way we had to cross 2 bridges where there was no shoulder and at any time the hitch could have given way and dropped the trailer completely.  Crossing a bridge on I80 at 2 mph at any time of day is dangerous but so was staying out in the bitter cold alongside the highway.  So we pulled into the right lane with our hazard lights on and slowly crossed the bridges.  Several people passed and expressed their displeasure.  Again the Lord's hand had already sent help.  Just moments after crossing the second bridge an Iowa State Trooper pulled in behind me, so we stopped and he came up to talk with me.  Someone had called in the showers of sparks as they happened and he had been sent to investigate.  Once I explained the situation, he agreed it was best to get off the highway.  He pulled back behind Kelly and with his safety lights on redirected traffic for our slow moving vehicles all the way to the next exit! 

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    At the next exit there really wasn't much in the way of services.  Just a little gas station a couple of small closed stores, a bank, and a motel.  The trooper talked with us a few minutes after we stopped and he was very helpful in telling us where to go for various things we might need.  After that he drove off into the night.

    Now I had some work to do.  It was now -5 degrees F according to the bank sign.  I got out the welding torches and went to weld up the hitch.  After taking a look at it we decided that since the hitch was already coming off and it was kind of put on in a bad location originally anyway, we were going to cut it the rest of the way off, and then weld it back on further back where it should have been in the first place.  (I couldn't turn very sharp because the trailer was so close to the bed of the truck when turning, and I'd already put a dent in the travel trailer while turning around at the exit.)  As I tuned the torch and started cutting I ran out of acetylene gas.  The tanks were just so cold that they didn't have any pressure even though technically there was enough gas in them for the job.  Disgusted I rolled out and explained to Kelly that we were going to need several things or we weren't going to be leaving there anytime soon.  We went to the local gas station there in Desoto, Iowa and started looking for any place or person who might be able to help.  We had several recommendations for a local trailer place, but they would not be open until morning.

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Miracle #7
The Generator on a Bitterly Cold Night While Stranded

    Already running very low on money we knew we'd have to sleep in the truck that night to save the money.  So we put the generator out under the big truck again and hooked up the block heater.  Again the generator worked perfectly keeping not only the engine of Bertha warm, but running the space heater in the truck.  Although a bit cramped we were warm and slept as best you can in a car.

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Miracle #8
One of the Best Trailer & Hitch Fabricators in the US

    The next morning I left Kelly and the baby there in "town" (with the cell phone) while I took the big truck in search of someone to fix the hitch.  I drove to the trailer repair place that we were directed to the night before.  Just 20 miles away was Northwest trailer.  Not only was it fairly close, but after my experience there, and the service we received, I must state they are one of the best trailer places in the US.

    After looking at our hitch and taking some measurements they had a plan.  I told them they weight we were carrying, etc., and they fabricated one of the strongest trailer hitches I've ever seen.  They really did a professional job, and at a reasonable cost of $280.

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    After returning from the trailer place and hitching the trailer all back up we were off again.  We managed to drive the rest of the day without mishap, and again, all the weigh stations were closed.  Until that night...

    It was about 7pm when I ran into my first open weigh station in Nebraska.  As I passed over the scales I prayed again.  They called me in, and ordered me to bring all the paperwork, my logbook etc.  After going in, I gave them all the paperwork, and explained I wasn't driving commercially but was moving personal items.  Long story short in there, they issued me a $120 fine for being 1200 lbs (2200 lbs) overweight on the trucks rear axle.  Now remember we were already low on money from the experience earlier that day and the night before, so this was really a blow to us.  But God still had everything under control.  You see, God doesn't need money, He paves His streets with gold.

    I paid the ticket, and knew that it was now going to be most likely that we would have just enough money, or would just be short of the money necessary to get to our new home.  Unfortunately, it's required that overweight axles be corrected before leaving.  This meant that the truck would have to be opened up and partially unloaded.  Yes, right there at a weigh station, on another bitterly cold night.  Kelly was very patient, and I was pretty upset because of all the hassle, but we managed to dispose of several extremely heavy items, and moved others to the back of the pickup, and cab of the big truck etc., all in an effort to get the weight off that rear axle.  Kelly and I laughed as we walked away from the dumpster because of all the heavy items we had put in there.  I remember saying, it's going to be funny to watch the garbage truck try to lift that dumpster.

    We didn't really know how much weight we had dumped/moved, so after 4 hours of this in the cold we closed up the truck, prayed, and headed across the scale again.  They gave us the green light and we were off again feeling rather relieved.  One of the requirements of the ticket we were issued was that we get a trip/fuel permit at the next exit.  So again $45 later we were the proud owners of a permit for the next 50 miles of Nebraska.

    Again that night we slept at a rest area and used the generator to keep warm, and be able to start the truck.

    The next day I during the morning inspection of the big truck and found a bolt on the alternator to be stripping out and causing the fan belts to slip a little which had been causing the engine temp to vary up and down the night before.  Providentially we were just a couple miles from a Menard's hardware store and so Kelly ran over and got a new bolt and nut while I drilled out the old one.  She was back shortly and we had it fixed quickly and were back on the road.

    That evening we came to our first major downgrade.  It was a 4% downgrade.  For those of you unfamiliar, that's fairly steep.  No big deal in a car, but in a truck that is already at it's weight limit, and a weighed down travel trailer it's just plain dangerous.  We stopped before going down the grade at a rest stop at the top of the pass.  We prayed, and continued on.

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Miracle #9
Bertha's Brakes Fade Out and Return

    As we started down the grade I remembered all the training from my CDL manual.  Select a lower gear, let the engine do most of the braking, and only apply the brakes in intervals, allowing them to cool.

    As we proceeded down the grade the truck began to gain speed.  My stomach turned a summersault as a felt the weight of the truck beginning to push me faster and faster.  I applied the brakes periodically just like the manual said, but at a point about halfway down the grade I applied the brakes again and they began to fade out.  I said a quick, eyes wide open prayer, and let off the brakes to cool them.  I informed Kelly of my situation on the CB as again I felt my stomach churn and the truck rapidly began to build up speed.  The engine revved past the normal governor point.  That's the "redline" on a diesel.  I waited for what seemed like ages and applied the brakes again.  They had returned normally, and amazingly the rest of the way down the grade they worked normally without fading.  I'm just waiting to hear the stories of my guardian angel about how he held that old truck back.

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    Aside from driving on a fair amount of black ice, the rest of that day went fairly uneventfully, and we made it to a rest area at the top of the continental divide.  We would have stopped somewhere a little more sheltered and friendly but because of a bad weather front the day before (which the Lord providentially helped us avoid) every single truck stop down below the pass was so full that it was a traffic jam of semi's at every exit, so we pressed on until that rest area.  As I came to a stop in the rest area it was so overcome by blown snow in some areas that I pushed through several drifts that were at least a foot tall.

    Again the generator served us faithfully and we had a warm night.

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Miracle #10
Safety for Hundreds of Miles of Black Ice

    Driving through the rest of the day was stressful.  There were hundreds and hundreds of miles of black ice that had been dropped by the previous days storm.  We have no idea where the storm went but it seems to have vanished and we never had to drive in it.  As we drove over the miles and miles of black ice there were all kinds of cars, trucks, even semi trucks in the ditch from the day before and some even going off the road while we were driving through.  The Lord again worked amazingly for us as this was Kelly's first time towing anything in bad weather much less loaded down and towing on black ice.

    On this trip I can honestly say in all my driving experience I've NEVER seen so many vehicles in the ditch and wrecked from black ice.  Hundreds of miles of accidents.  It was really amazing at times.

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    The next day we drove all day and managed to get to a truck stop just a few miles from Utah.  At this point we were getting very low on money, and we knew that there was another truck scale ahead in the canyon we'd be driving through.  At the truck stop we recalculated our current fuel, current savings, cash etc.  We plugged it all into the computer, and it said that we were $9 short of reaching our goal in Idaho.  We prayed and sent out an email asking for assistance before continuing on.  We knew we had to go what we could in faith and God would take care of the rest.  We moved forward.

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Miracle #11
The Kindness of the Supervisor of the Department of Transportation of Utah

    As I approached the next weigh station in Echo, Utah it was open.  I prayed and proceeded hopefully unto the scale.  My heart sank as they called me in.  I took all the necessary paperwork in and began to dialogue with the person at the desk.  I won't even take the time to explain all the problems, but it seemed that there was a problem in almost every area, not enough insurance for their state, too much weight for registration (even though that's how MI registered it,) etc.  Kelly and the baby were waiting for me just up the hill in case I needed her help again.

    Now remember we are already $9 short of  gas money according to the computer, and that's if we didn't eat another bite the rest of the way.  As I listened to the weigh master explain the problems and the fines I'd have to pay for each one, there was one problem for which she would have to call the Supervisor of the DOT of Utah.  We didn't have enough insurance coverage to meet the requirements of their state.  Again, God had things under control.  I pleaded with the lady and explained we were not driving commercial, but just moving across the country.  She called the supervisor and explained the situation to her.  I was not prepared for the response.

    The supervisor told the weigh master to not only let us go, WITHOUT any fines, etc., but she had the lady give me her supervisor's card and told me that if I was stopped by any police officer, or at any weigh station through the rest of the state to present her card to them and tell them she had cleared us to pass through!  Clearly God can still move people's hearts with compassion today!

    As I got in the truck I got on the CB radio (a special semi-private sideband channel) and told Kelly, "Guess what, you're NOT going to believe this, but..."  and proceeded to tell her all about it.  Another miracle! 

    But we were still $9 short of home...

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    As we were low on fuel and we dropped down into Provo, Utah we stopped at a truck stop and carefully divided up the last of the money between the big truck and the pickup for gas.  I hoped that it might just make it close enough we could get help from family once close enough.  At this point we were not aware of the kindness of a friend in sending us the needed financial assistance to make our destination.  Little did we know that God was about to work another amazing miracle. 

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Miracle #12
Gas That Wouldn't Run Out

    It was Friday night, and we knew Sabbath was coming, so we left Provo after fueling and continued North.  Now, I put $120 worth of diesel in the big truck in Provo, Utah.  Remember that we were unable to fill the tanks on the big truck because we were out of money, but again, God doesn't need money.  We didn't want to spend Sabbath at a rest stop alongside the road, so we kept praying and driving, hoping that we could at least get close.  As we approached Idaho I noticed that we weren't burning fuel in the big truck as fast as we should have been, and we continued on.  We were so "close" to our destination that we decided to press on through the night and get "home."

    We passed town after town, hundreds of miles.  We had saved one last $20 for gas in the pickup because it doesn't have the range of the big truck, and so we got gas in the pickup and continued on.  Now here's where it really begins to get interesting.  Our fuel gauges almost stopped going down, so we continued on, and on, and on. 

    Now after a bit of research I've calculated that Provo, Utah is approximately 400 miles from our destination in Idaho.  Now with fuel at $3.10 a gallon, Big Bertha (also affectionately called "old number 7") could go around 230 miles on the $120 of fuel from Provo plus whatever small amount was in the tank before fueling.  (Bertha gets around 6mpg while towing a heavy load, as measured previously on the same trip.)  230 miles plus a little extra does NOT get you 400 miles in a big truck.  IT JUST DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT.

    As we continued on in faith the fuel gauges barely crept down.  As we entered Boise, ID nearing 400 miles away, Bertha still had 1/2 a tank of gas!  Now I've driven Bertha for several years and TRUST ME, THIS IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.  Bertha drinks diesel like a fish!  As we pulled into our destination I check the fuel guage again and amazingly it was just a little below half a tank.  All I could do was praise God.  Kelly and I both noticed our fuel getting us further and further that night.  God truly is kind and merciful.  We did not need $1 of the financial assistance for fuel to make our destination, although we did use it for groceries as instructed.  Thanks be to God!

    Now here's something even more interesting.  The next Monday morning we went to take the big truck and travel trailer over to storage and I got a surprise when I went to start the truck.  I went to start the truck and as soon as I got the truck started I noticed the fuel guage.  IT WAS BELOW EMPTY.  I barely had enough fuel to make it the couple miles to the storage facility.  On the way I thought, hmm, maybe someone siphoned it out, so when we got it in storage I stopped and carefully looked at the fuel caps on both tanks.  The dirt and oil on them told the story.  No fingerprints, just dirt and oil.  No one had siphoned any fuel out.  After seeing this I realized the Lord was giving me further confirmation of His work.  Each tank on "old number 7" holds 50 gallons.  If they were just below half a tank when I shut the truck off that means they would have had approximately 20 gallons each remaining, for a total of 40 gallons!  Friends, 40 gallons of diesel fuel doesn't just appear, and it certainly doesn't vanish into thin air!  I will never question that God was clearly working a series of miracles the entire trip out here and He saved the best for last.

    Miracles can only happen when nothing else can.

    God always seems to come through, at the last minute, and for those faithful to Him, they can count on it.  I just want to thank the Lord for this amazing lesson in faith and His careful watch and care on this trip.  When Satan throws trials in your life don't forget who's in charge.  Pray, and then move forward in faith.  Watch what God does!  Then tell someone what He's done for you.

    Oh yes, and just for those who are prone to doubt, those fuel gauges have NEVER been wrong before, and have NEVER been wrong since.

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Thanks,
Ryan McCoy
Sealing Time Ministries
PO Box 1003
Nampa, ID 83653-1003
Ryan@SealingTime.com
775-458-9817

--     “It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask." {GC 525.2}