So, a couple weeks ago I learned a little about God's faithfulness and provision. On August 24th I headed to Manning Park on my motorcycle for a family reunion. I made it about 20 kms out of Kelowna when my bike started to bog down. I realized I couldn't make it 200 more kms on a severally underpowered bike, so I drove home and got my truck.
The reunion was good. I wanted to drive home Saturday night so I could be at church the next morning; it was going to be my last Sunday in BC because the next Saturday I would be driving to Saskatchewan to go to school. So I headed from the campsite at about 7:00pm Saturday evening.
Around 8:45 I was about 30 kms outside of Penticton on a straight stretch, when it happened. A dear sprinted across the highway, and I only saw it as it passed trough my headlight beams. It missed my right corner by about a foot. I had enough time to hit the horn and push in the clutch, but I don't think I got the break when a moment later the second dear ran in front of me. I hit the dear just behind its shoulder on the left side of my truck. There was a loud thud and glass from the headlight went flying up. I must have closed my eyes because I only remember hitting the dear and then coasting to the side of the road. I was starting to panic at this point. I opened my door and smelled radiator fluid, and realized that my cooling system had been damaged. Looking under the hood proved my suspicion. The hood and left front quarter panel were badly crumpled, and the left headlight was still on, but dangling by its wires. I spent about five minutes just trying to decide what to do. Should I hitch a ride? Can I drive it back to the last town? How far is Penticton now? I decide to try and make it to Penticton.
I got about a hundred feet down the road and saw a black bear lazily walking on the left shoulder of the highway. And then my hood flew up! The hood hadn't latched properly when I had looked at the radiator because the front was so damaged. I jumped out of my truck and tried to latch the hood. I managed to get it, but only after I jumped on it. The next morning I realized that the bear may have been watching this stupid human jumping on the hood of his truck. But at the time I just got back in and started driving.
The whole time I was praying that my truck wouldn't overheat. I could smell hot coolant as I went along. I watched the temperature gauge slowly creep up to the red line, the whole time trying to run my engine at the lowest possible RPM to cool it down, and putting it in neutral when I could coast on a hill. I made it about 10 minutes outside of Penticton when the temp gauge finally hit red. I decided to pull over for a few minutes and let it cool. My truck almost didn't start again, but I got it going. I have a Grandma that lives in Penticton, so I managed to get to her house and stay the night; my Dad picked me up the next morning. I called ICBC that night and found out that my insurance would cover the collision (minus deductible) and that there would be not points against my licence; now just to figure out transportation for the future.
As I said before, in a week I was supposed to be going to Saskatchewan for school. I received several offers from people wanting to drive me to Briercrest if I couldn't find a replacement vehicle. I looked at a couple but nothing really felt like it could be my truck. I was left wishing I hadn't gotten into an accident as I was looking at nice vehicles, but nothing that fit my needs. On Monday I called up a man who had an add in the paper for a 93' S-10. He said he had just placed the add and the clutch went on his truck, but it would be fixed in a couple days. Two days later I tried calling him but got no answer. I went to his house to see if it was in the driveway, but I didn't see anything there. As I was driving out of the complex that he lived in, I noticed a black truck that looked almost like the one I crashed. I though, "I wish that one was for sale. It looks just like my old one."
At this point I was starting to get discouraged that I wasn't going to find a vehicle. Shandel had offered to drive me to school, but we had decided that I needed to find something before Wednesday night. I managed to call the man with the S-10 and arranged to meet him after I went for dinner with my Dad one last time before I went back to school. Rod said that he would meet me in an open lot in front of the complex he lived in.
As my Dad and I drove up to the lot, I started to laugh. There, sitting next to Rod, was the black S-10 I had seen earlier in the day. As I got off my bike Rod said to me, "Here she is." and I was thinking, "Yes, here she is. It's Jireh!" (meaning provision). This was my truck! After looking at it and telling Rod that I was very interested in it, I mentioned that I was just waiting to hear from ICBC on what amount they would give me for my old truck (it was declared a write-off earlier that day).
The next day I received a call from ICBC. The adjuster told me to get some paper and start writing number down. He started "$2861.95" in my head I was thinking wow that's a lot; "Minus the $300 dollar deductible. And minus $144.30 for the GST credit. You'll receive a check for $2273.35." I was a little stunned as I got off the phone. I had been trying desperately all week to get evidence of what my truck was worth so I could get a fair settlement from the insurance. I thought it was worth $2500, and apparently so did ICBC! I had calculated that I needed to get $2000 from the insurance to buy the new truck, and I received more than that. I called up Rod and let him know that I wanted a second look at the S-10.
Rod had been asking for $3500 on the S-10. I brought a friend to look at the truck and we both concluded that it could very well be worth that, but I was gong to try and talk the price down. I offered him $3200. At first I thought he wasn't going to go for it, but he finally said, "Ya, I could sell it to you for that." That day I bought the truck; the next day I insured it and packed it, and then on Saturday I drove to Calgary. I ended up getting better mileage than I had ever gotten in my other truck (which was a smaller engine than the new one). I truly feel that God has been watching me through every step of this.
There might be some people that are reading this that don't even believe that God exists, but I fell this experience is just one more piece of evidence that says He does exist and that He cares what happens to His kids on earth. I just want to point out all the things that He controlled or redeemed within this situation. 1-I wasn't on my motorcycle when I hit the dear (I would be dead or in critical condition. 100kmph hurts when hitting a 170lb animal). 2-I wasn't injured at all, just shaken up. 3- I didn't get eaten by a bear. 4-I managed to get to my Grandma's house, who just happened to be close enough and was at home that night. I also didn't hit the first dear. If my right headlight had been damaged, I wouldn't have been able to see to drive to Penticton. 5-At the time of the accident, Shandel suddenly wondered what would happen if I were to die, and she started to pray (I had the same thing happen when she and a couple other girls from my church were driving to Edmonton and nearly drove off the road and over a cliff) 6-I had the proper insurance to cover the accident (I almost didn't buy it a month before all this). 7-I found the perfect (and better) truck in less than a week. 8- ICBC blessed me with a fair settlement and I didn't have to argue a thing. 9-I managed to get what I would consider a great deal for the new truck. 10-My new truck is in better shape, has more features (power steering and breaks) and gets better gas mileage than the old truck. 11-I knew this whole thing was a bad situation, but I wasn't worried for a minute that God wasn't going to take care of it. My faith is stronger today because of it. I'll let you be the judge for yourself.
(Check my pictures for what the old truck and Jireh look like. They're almost identical.)