flat tires.

Last week I had an experience that reaffirmed a few things for me:

1. God knows me. God loves me. God never leaves me.

2. God often uses other people as his "angels," to help us in times of need. Sometimes unlikely people.

3. We are not exempt from trials, but they can be eased.

4. God listens when we pray.


Here's the experience, sorry, this may get long:

Last week Jakob and I started our long journey to Havasupai (located in the Grand Canyon). The plan was to drive to Kingman, AZ via Las Vegas and meet up with Austin's family.

I was a little worried about my car's ability to make another 1,000+ mile trip. We prayed before leaving and asked for God's protection.

In Las Vegas we stopped at Wal-Mart so Jakob could grab a few things and then we were going to get food and continue on our journey. Coming out of the Wal-Mart parking lot the steering wheel started pulling noticeably left. It got worse and then a terrible noise followed. We confirmed it was a flat tire and pulled into the nearest apartment complex.

This is where Bill comes in. A stout guy with long hair and a beard. Maybe a Harley-Davidson shirt? Not exactly white flowing robes. He just "happened to walk out of his apartment" and see us. He helped us remove the flat tire and put the temporary tire on. Then he told us that down the street there were some Mexican tire places where I could get a replacement starting at $25.

We found the tire place and I chose a used tire (might have been a mistake, but God still helped me out despite a poor decision). If we had gotten a flat tire just 10 minutes earlier we would have been going about 80 mph on I-15. A much more dangerous, and remote situation.

You can call it coincidence. However, I know that God helped us through an inevitable trial by making the timing so convenient. An answer to our prayers.

It gets better (or worse).

We got to Kingman in one piece and met up with Austin's family. We got settled into our hotel room and were planning on getting up at 3 am to head to the trail that leads into the Havasupai reservation.

I went out at about 11 that night to find the replacement tire was flat. I was a little surprised. I drove just down the street to a gas station and put air in the tire (there were a lot of hotels in the Kingman, "lucky" for us we were in one close to a gas station). There was definitely a hole in the tire. I could hear air coming out of it.

Had I found that out at 3 in the morning we would have not been able to do much about it.

So we slept in till 7 and got a new tire at Big O Tires, which "conveniently" was down the street from our hotel about a mile.

The rest of the journey went smoothly.

I don't believe there are many coincidences. This experience was evidence enough to show me that God loves me and never leaves me.