West Cocoa Chat

Here's a question - Can or does God work in the life of a shredded serpentine belt on a bus? I think He did for us. First - in the timing. As we rolled into a gas station after being fed by the good folks at Crossroads Baptist, Chad who was driving the bus noticed a sudden loss of power steering and power brakes. When we popped the hood it was evident that the 151 (this number would come back to haunt us again and again) inch long serpentine belt had shredded. God was truly with us in many ways.

First, we (that would be me) had just come from driving on I-40 (or as you SoCal folks say, "The 40") in the mountain passes, tunnels, and 45mph curves of North Carolina. If we had lost power steering and brakes on our 35 passenger bus, in many places along parts of I-40, the results could have been disastrous.

Second, the belt went just as we pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store to get diesel for the next day's return trip home. Being just a few miles from Bob's church, we were able to park the bus (this would have been Sunday night around 8) and shuttle the kids to the church building. Bob was sure that we could find a belt in the morning, put it on ourselves, and be on our way to Central Florida.

Now, remember this phrase, "I have it in my hand." This phrase would become almost as infamous as Britain's Neville Chamberlain's, "Peace in our time."

Columbia, South Carolina is the state capitol, home of the S.C. Gamecocks, and numerous G.M. Dealerships. We figured between this fact and a number of Recreational Vehicles outlets, surely (and don't call me "surely") someone would have the belt we needed.

I could walk you through each step of our belt quest but I won't. Suffice it to say that as we journeyed for 4 hours all over Columbia, S.C., the scenarios were the same. Someone in Parts would say, "We have the belt," only to discover that our belt was made in Canada and therefore was 151 inches long, not the 149 inches that the belt would have been if it were a die hard American made belt.

The other scenario that played out in our 6 or 7 stops was someone in Parts would say, "No, we don't have that belt but let me look it up on our computer." This PP (that "Part Person") would then give us a false sense of hope by saying, "Here it is, it's at Store blah-blah." To further rub salt in our "belts" they would then call "Store blah-blah," ask them to check for the belt, and then tell us that the PP on the other end of the line was saying those immortal words, "I have it in my hand."

We went to what ended up being our next to the last stop having been told by a female PP those immortal words. We thought for sure God was going to come through before lunch time. As we walked into this dealership's Parts Department we could immediately tell, the belt "in hand" wasn't the belt. We said, "Madam PP, that isn't the belt and the guy told you it had to be 151 inches!"

Madam PP was at a loss for words but to explain to us that she was right she took the belt, put it under her foot, and stretched it until it was even with her head. She then said, "Look, I'm 5ft, 6in," as she was stretching the belt. I wanted to slap her in Jesus as I said, "Madam PP, 5 times 12 plus 6, doubled, does not come out to be 151 inches."

We had several adults and kids that had to be home that night. One was flying to Turkey the next morning. So as we drove off I took out my cell phone in the quest to find a rental van. My friend Bob who had graciously shuttled us all over Columbia told me to put my phone up. I explained to Bob that we were out of time but he insisted that I put my phone up and that we try one more place.

By chance we pulled into an Auto Parts Store. We had passed this store several times in our 151 inch quest. We told the PP what we needed and his first answer was, "We don't' usually carry something like that but let me check." He did, he smiled, and then he said, "Somebody is looking after you today." He walked back among the parts and returned with a 151 inch long belt. He told us that someone had ordered that belt 2 weeks earlier but had failed to pick it up!

Do you think God sometimes gets a good laugh out of our efforts, our plans, when He knows how He is going to work it out? Either way, it was a God thing.