Our church is putting on a play for Easter called "Deliverer". We were recording the show, so I had to do some camera work last night for the play. We finished up at around 9:30 pm. Its dark, and the roads have few travelers.
So, I'm driving on the country backroads to my house, and I was about halfway home when a truck in the oncoming lane is literally halfway in my lane! I swerve to miss him, and end up hitting some rough ground on the side of the road. I just knew that my front tire was going to go flat, but luckily there was a gas station down the road. I drove on the flat for another 100 yards or so to the gas station lovingly known as Joyner's Corner.
Of course the gas station is closed at this time of night, so I park by a light and jack up the car and take the lugnuts off, and the wheel is stuck! Can't get it off! I try calling the house, and the phone is busy.
I ask this old man who happened to pull up for some help getting this wheel off. He tries hitting it with the spare. Nothing! Then we try prying it off with both of our lugnut wrenches. Still nothing… He finally suggests that I put the tire back on, with the lugnuts on loosely, and drive around a bit to loosen the tire. Then he gets back into his car and drives off into the night.
So I put the tire back on, putting the lugnuts on loosely, take the car off the jack and drive around to loosen the tire up. After a few minutes of driving, I park under the light again and jack up the car only to find out that my lugnut wrench is missing. GONE! I guess the old man accidentally drove off with it.
I try calling home again – busy signal. So I'm like screwed at this point, the wheel still won't come off, no way to tighten the lugnuts even if I could, and the home phone is still busy.
Another man pulls up, this time a thoroughbred redneck. I ask him if he has a lugnut wrench I could borrow. He does… at home. And he drives off to get it. Luckily, he lives a mere 100 yards away. He comes back a few minutes later with a 4-way. We still can't get the wheel off. I ask if he has a hammer. He pulls out a 2 pound hammer from his cluttered trunkspace and literally beats the wheel off of the disc brake assembly. Success!!
So I change the tire, thank the man for his help and I'm off. I decide that I should only drive 45 mph because the spare doesn't sound right. Besides that, I have to hold the steering wheel to the left in order to go straight. I'm thinking at this point the alignment is a little off. The phone finally rings and I tell Amie about the whole ordeal.
I finally made it home around 11 pm. I got home and the first thing I told Amie is that we are trading that car in this week!
I left for work in the morning and found the spare tire was already flat!!! Great! Amie happily gives me a ride to work. I was there for about an hour and a half and Amie calls me and asks if I'm busy. Of course I'm at work, so I say, "no". She tells me that she has been on the phone with Michael Bracken at NeSmith Chevrolet, who sold us our Chevy Equinox back in October. She explained the situation, how this Toyota had survived the trip from California, had scratched paint, alignment problems and is currently sitting on a spare. She also explains our financial situation to him. He asks her what kind of car we are looking for. She replies, "As long as it is not a blue hatchback Chevy Aveo, we don't care". She also tells him that payments have to be under $300 a month. He crunches a few numbers and calls back saying, "It is done!"
I was thanking God on the way to Claxton. Just a few days ago, I got the idea in my head that we just could not afford to trade this car in. It had too much negative equity, and I just could not see with my credit score and income how this would even be possible. Besides, it badly needed a tuneup and a set of tires.
Michael had hooked us up with a silver 4-door Chevy Cobalt with a rear spoiler. It was a demo unit with 4000 miles on it. But the price was reduced by $3000 and would still come with a full manufacturer's warranty. Definitely just want we needed.
I asked Amie how is all of this happening? She turned around and asked me, "Don't you think God wants us to safely get to church?"
By 1:15, I was rolling home in a new Chevy Cobalt. I did not think that this would've happened so soon. But it did. And its funny, because we like to think that God is not interested in our daily struggles. But he wants to bless us and help us with our problems in these crazy and unpredictable ways. I think He's trying to teach me something about my preconceived notions about how God reveals His plan to us.