God's goodness through His children

So, I have to share this short story of what happened to us the other day when we were going Christmas shopping.

We were on our way to the Spanish Fort shopping center and were crossing the bay. And for those of you who are not from Mobile, the Mobile Bay is what divides Mobile and Baldwin county. Those are 2 counties in lower Alabama. There is some really good shopping on the eastern shore. The bridge is about 7 miles long. So, we were on this bridge crossing the bay and our tire blew. To me, it is the absolutely most scary place to blow a tire. There is not much of an emergency lane. This is interstate and there are cars, trucks, SUV's  and 18 wheelers, flying by at 70 MPH. There are a lot of horrible stories of what have happened to people when they have broke down on this bridge because the emergency lane is so small.

We pull over and we notice that we are about 1 1/2 miles from the nearest exit which is about half way across the bay. We are not sure what to do. There is really no room to change a tire. It takes us minutes to decide if we are going to even get out. Well, trying to stay calm because we have the kids with us, we pray, rebuke fear, the enemy and his plans and ask for God's angels to come and minister and war for us immediately. I did not want us to be a bay bridge statistic or on the nightly news.

Lynn gets out to check the damage. And boy, is there damage. The 2 mo. old tire is completely shredded. This is the 3rd tire on this same side that we have replaced in a year. Thank goodness it was on the right side closest to the bridge wall. But we were still too close to have room to change it. Lynn checks the spare tire. And to no surprise, the spare tire is flat as well.

After a few minutes of prayer and asking God what we need to do in this situation, Lynn calls a dear friend from church. Our family members were in not available at this time to help us. Figures, right? But thanks to God and our church friend (who is church family), he is available and drops what he is doing and goes and gets us a tire. While we are waiting, Lynn decides to drive about 5 MPH in the emergency lane to the nearest exit so that we could change the tire when he got there.

What started out to be a very scary and stressful event ended up being a fun one. Because the car was wibbling, wobbling and galloping about, we pretended that we were horsemen on a journey to the east singing the "Round Em Up Cowboy" song. Singing that song led to another song and then to another song and then to another song. What a relief that was. The kids really helped me out in this situation. Not only was our friend on his way with a new tire, but our kids were lightening the load by singing songs.

We finally made it to the exit. It was really a pretty day and we got to enjoy the scenery. As well as watch people fish. So after about an hour, our friend finally arrived with our new tire. Merry Christmas, Lynn. You got another new tire for your car. Maybe this one will last longer than a few months.

I don't know what we would have done if it were not for our friend. Not only was it a blessing that day to have a tire and be able to go on our way, but that blessing has stuck with me for a few days now. The thought that someone would drop what they were doing, get a new tire and wheel, drive about 45 min. and help us replace our old tire, has just put me beside myself. What a true test of friendship. We were in need and God had someone he wanted to use on our behalf. What a blessing.

I hope you have a friend that would do that for you.

So, my praise for this story is...
I praise you God for our friend that you gave us.
I praise you that he had the cash to pay for it.
I praise you that we had the money to re-imburse him.
I praise you that it happened when it was pretty and day light outside.
I praise you that it didn't happen to Lynn when he was on his way home from work at 2am on a dark country road.
I praise you for my kids that sang songs to lightened the load.
I praise you that we made it back home safe and sound.
I praise you that the car was not messed up in any way.
I praise you Jesus for sending your angels to watch over us.
I also praise you for my readers that will hopefully be blessed from reading this story.