Of Miracles and Motors

Dec 30^th,

Today found me driving to Mexico City. I have made this trip many times over the past 6 years and know the road well. I have never had any problems at all. This was to be a very different trip indeed.

When you leave Monterrey on the way to Mexico City the first hundred miles or so are mountainous. Today it just happens to be raining making the roads even more hazardous then normal.

9:20 AM

At one point in the mountains I had been having silent prayer vigil and was reminded of a story I was told the morning before when I had left the home in Texas about how the Lord had protected one of the teams that had been driving home in the rain a few days earlier and had skidded on the road and done a few 360’s but with nothing happening to them. I remember praising the Lord with them for His miraculous protection.

So when thinking about this story I was praying for our protection and rounding a curve in the mountain I felt the back end of the truck start skidding, then the whole truck headed towards the edge of the cliff. I felt completely powerless and knew that to come out of this would only have to be the Lord.

People have said that in those few moments’ everything goes into slow motion and your life flashes before your eyes, well I can’t say that happened to me, nothing seemed to slow down and only two things went through my head.

One, was my desire to not have anything happen to us due to those I had in the vehicle with me, since they were traveling in my vehicle I felt the responsibility for their safety.

And the second thought was of my kids, and how very much I loved them. I hoped that should anything happen now that they would take it well.

I know for a fact that the Lord was protecting us and I had spirit helpers there with us, I started to feel my body react before I even had time to formulate in my mind and then tell my body what to do. I turned the wheel away from the cliff that we were careening towards and pumped the brakes, this sent us into a spin which took us back across the three lanes of road we were on and heading right into the concrete divider from on coming traffic.

Another stand on the brake and all of a sudden we stopped one inch from the divider without having touched anything or getting a scratch on us. I sat there with goose bumps on every inch of my body realizing what the Lord had just done for us.

He had given us another chance at life.

A couple miles down the road I found a safe place to pull off the road and just walked around for about 20 minutes to get my shakes out. I was so thankful for what the Lord had done, I couldn’t stop telling Him.

12:30 PM

We have been on the road for a few hours now and are making good time and progress. My battery indicator light starts going on and off. After an hour or so the battery light is on all the time.

2:00 PM

We stopped for gas and the truck won’t start again. I think the battery is dead which can only mean the alternator is out. Andy and I pushed the truck to an out of the way place in the parking lot and then I head off to find a mechanic. Finding one wasn’t hard since they sit around like vultures waiting for someone to break down and which they can prey upon.

I explained the problem and about our work letting him know we don’t really have money to work with, he assures me it’s no problem that he can get it fixed cheaply. He took the battery and alternator off and I jump into his car with him to go to his shop. Upon arrival about 6 people went to work, one charging the battery the others taking the alternator apart and each cleaning a different piece, a couple of them were running errands and getting new parts for the alternator.

To me it looked like they were doing a lot, being that I don't know anything about alternators. So within an hour the alternator was all back together and we were headed back to the truck. After reinstalling it and hooking the battery back up the truck started right away. I was relieved and paid for the work and we loaded up and were back on the road.

4:00 PM

We are still four hours away from Mexico City and back on the road, it seems like the alternator is working fine, the battery light is out and I am thanking the Lord it didn’t take more then two hours.

6:30 PM

It’s dark now and I am using the lights, my battery light is back on and it looks like the alternator isn’t working after all. The lights are starting to dim and we are barely making progress.

7:30 PM

The truck finally dies on the side of the road just 15 miles north of the entrance to Mexico City. I am so ready to get there. Another mechanic pulls up and after telling him my story he tells me the other guys didn’t know what they were doing and he can fix it no problem. (Didn’t I hear this once before today?)

So he takes the alternator off and we go to another shop to get it fixed. There they tell me the regulator on the alternator is bad and since it’s a Japanese truck you can’t get that regulator here in Mexico. So they gladly tell me to have the truck towed to the shop and they will put in a new one for me and only charge me $300 USD.

I walk out of the shop in dismay and start counseling with Mel about calling someone from Mexico City to come pick her and Andy up and I would sleep in the truck and try to get it worked on the next day.

The mechanic comes out and tells me they can rig the alternator to bypass the regulator and I would have to attach a cable to the battery directly for it to charge, but only for 20 minutes at a time as anymore then that would overheat the alternator and nothing would work. This jimmy-rigging would at least get us to the home that night and I could then work on it in Mexico City.

9:30 PM

So given the go ahead work begins again on the alternator I am watching but am not learning anything since they are not fixing the alternator but are rigging it. PTL at least something is happening.

12:15 AM

By the time that was done and we had the alternator back on the truck we are all so tired and thankful to be back on the road that the stopping every 20 minutes to connect or disconnect the alternator didn’t seem bad at all. We knew we were getting closer to our destination.

1:30 AM

We arrived at the home so thankful to be there. We made it safe and though we had to spend quite a bit of time and money on just getting there, having had that miracle of protection early that morning made it all seem like nothing. Thank you Jesus for Your Love!!