As a young man, I worked on cars constantly to keep them running for my newspaper route. As a result, I became very proficient at car repairs. I was very confident that I would always have a running vehicle due to my skill at repairing cars and my knack for picking up cars cheap and fixing them up. In my early years I often only paid $50 for a car, even into the early 90's.
I went through some very trying times in the early 90's, and at the time our family transportation for the five of us (which soon became 8 of us), was a early 80's blue dodge maxi van. It was a bucket of bolts and would bounce down the road, spitting and sputtering, requiring me to constantly work on it. One evening as I pulled into the church parking lot it sputtered and died. In my frustration I banged my fist on the dash and said "I would just as soon not have a vehicle as to have a vehicle like this!"
The Lord heard my cry, and the very next day as we were coming home from grocery shopping the engine blew. Immediately a man stopped in a little ford ranger pickup and somehow all 5 of my family and the man crammed into the truck as he gave us a ride home. I walked for nine months.
I had no money to repair the van, so we had to move into the housing projects which was within walking distance from my work. I finally saved up enough money and purchased a toyota corolla with a blown head gasket. I had had a corolla before, so I knew the engine inside and out. A piece of cake to work on, especially the head gasket! It would only take a few hours to get it on the road. When I pulled the head, it was cracked and it took me months to save the money to purchase another head to put on the car. The next door neighbor complained about the car sitting there so the housing authority told me that on a certain day it would be towed. The day before I got it running!
For a very short time we drove it around, ecstatic to have a car. I moved a doctor from north Louisiana to New Orleans, so I put the corolla on a tow dolly behind the car. Out of habit I put the car in first gear. I pulled the car 400 miles with it in first gear until I got to my destination, and I was doing interstate speed.
After unloading the Uhaul, we headed home. 50 miles out of New Orleans a rod started knocking. We drove home with it knocking all the way. We had a mighty prayer meeting for the next 18 hours. It sounded like we had a whole orchestra of nothing but drummers under the hood. As we rounded the last curve on our street, the rod went through the side of the block. I pushed in the clutch and rolled into my parking spot in front of the house. Back to walking again.
After a few more months, my boss purchased a business and all of its assets. One thing he got was a 78 Chrysler New Yorker. He offered to sell it to me on time, deducted from my paychecks for $800, $100 per month. I agreed to it, and once again we had a car and a very nice one at that. One night about midnight as we came home from a homeschool meeting that ran late, the car started spitting and sputtering. I got really upset, hitting my hand on the dash as the car sputtered along. We had only had the car 3 weeks.
We had moved out of the projects into a house on the highway, so I backed into our driveway and killed the car. When I opened the door, I saw an orange glow. When I looked under it I saw flames! I jumped out the car and quickly unbuckled seatbelt, getting everyone out of the car. As soon as everyone was clear, I tried to pop the hood, but the hood jammed. It popped up but the catch wouldn't release. I could see that gas was spilling over from the carburetor and it was on fire.
I ran next door and no one was home. I ran to the neighbor on the other side, but she couldn't find her glasses and was afraid to answer the door. About that time, a tow truck stopped on the highway. It was the first and only vehicle to come by. I ran to the man and asked if he had a fire extinguisher and he replied "Yes".
It looked to me like he was moving as slow as molasses as he went to the back of the truck and unzipped a duffle bag and threw it on the ground. I watched in total bewilderment as he started taking off his boots and stepped into the duffle bag. What in the world was this man doing?! My car was on fire!!
Understanding slowly dawned on me as the man pulled on his fire suit! He handed me a fire extinguisher and told me to spray the gas line and he would direct in the fire truck. He was a volunteer fire fighter and he had already called it in on his radio. (No cell phones in those days.) I ran back to the car and sprayed the gas line in little spurts as the fire truck came in behind me. They quickly had the fire put out, but not before the car was totaled. It burnt out the engine compartment and all the wiring inside the dash.
How amazing was that! The only vehicle to come by was a fire fighter! However, after this I once again was on foot, and worse than that I had 7 more months of car note to pay. I ended up walking for a total of two years. All my talent at fixing things did me no good when the Lord was teaching me a lesson.
This period of time came to an end when I acquired three vans. I took the engine from one, the transmission from another and put them into a third body. That van was a sight to behold! I couldn't stop thanking God for blessing me with another vehicle. No matter what happened, I thanked Him!
We were riding along one day and the passenger seat ripped out of the rusted floor board and my wife fell over. I wasn't able to fix the seat mount, so I just took it out and my wife rode behind me on the bench seat and we praised the Lord we had a vehicle. Another time the gas tank rusted through. I didn't have the money to fix it, so I took a 5 gallon gas can and strapped it to the wall where the seat had been with a bungee cord. I ran a gas line through one of the holes left in the floor board where the seat ripped out, and we continued driving it and praising the Lord.
This lesson of being thankful was indelibly written upon my heart from this time forward. Even today, many years later, I am still thankful. My Chevrolet suburban we currently drive has experienced some issues that I haven't been able to resolve yet, but I still thank the Lord every day for it. ( I do have a backup vehicle as well though it isn't four wheel drive.) What I have not done nor will do is hit the dash and say I'd just as soon as not have a vehicle as this piece of junk!
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