Road Trip to Texas!

Hello all my friends and family.....I am finally in Texas, but not at the final destination. I am currently at Sarah's parent's house in Sherman, Texas. We are spending the day...relaxing, before moving on to Dilley, TX...which will be another 8 hours! The trip has been a tough one, but worth it for me!

Day 1:

On Monday morning we left Connecticut at 10:00 a.m. We got to New York two hours later. We had to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge to connect over to New Jersey. Well, we crossed over the bridge and somehow...according to the GPS....it put us back on the bridge going north! Once on the other side we pulled over to see if the GPS was giving us the right directions. We went over the bridge again and figured out that the GPS was not "up to date" because there had been construction done and we had detour to another exit. Anyways, we figured it out and we were back on the road.

The night before we had bought a lot of "goodies" to take on the road. Well, the night before Sarah told me to put the chocolate stuff in the refrigerator....I told her "let's not put it in the there because we're going to forget to take it out in morning." Sarah said..."I'll put it on my IPhone as a reminder." Well, once we were back on the road, I decided I wanted one of my chocolate cakes. When I saw Sarah's expression....I knew she had forgotten to take the goodies out of my refrigerator....I started 'crying and whining'....I radioed Robb and he started doing the same thing I did....It was going to be a long ride or a least until we get to a Walmart...

At around 2:30, we had entered the State of Pennsylvania when Sarah realized that the car was overheating! We pulled over the car and realized we need to stop a nearest gas station. Robb put the stuff you need to put in when you car overheats. We went back on the road....the car started overheating again! Sarah decided to look up where the nearest AutoZone was at so Robb can buy a "piece" he thought might help the car overheating. He went inside the store and came out with a man who had graduated from East Hartford High School in Connecticut. Wow, talking about being a small world. We were in Lebanon, Pennsylvania...go figure.

Well, the guy told him it was the temperture gauge but wouldn't be able to help him because it was against store for him to work on a car. At this point, Robb was becoming frustrated and put his hand on the car and asked the Lord..."ok Lord, what I am to do...I don't know how to change a tempature gauge....I don't know anyone around here...I need you to guide me." 5 minutes later a young Hispanic man with an older Hispanic man pulled into AutoZone. The young man approaches Robb and asks him what was wrong with the car. Robb explained to him what was going on and the young man told Robb if he could look at the car. He looked into the car and confirmed that indeed the was the gauge. He told Robb he was a mechanic and the he would changed it for him. Robb asked the guy how much would he charge. The young man said $30.00. Robb immediately said ok. The guy started to work on the car and was talking to Robb as he was working on the car. He asked Robb where he was from and where he was going. Robb told him he had worked at a church in Connecticut and was moving back to Texas. The guy looked at Robb and said "Hey, I'm a Christian too....then he pointed towards the older Hispanic man and told Robb...."He's a pastor." Robb then started to tell him the prayer he had said just 5 minutes before they had pulled into AutoZone and the guy told him, "wow, I feel the Holy Spirit....look at man hands my hair is standing up."!

I proceed to talked to the older gentlemen who did not speak too much English and I started to ask him where was he a pastor at. He told he was pastor in Harrisburg, PA. He told me he was Pentecostal. I told him "so are we." He started praising the Lord! He told me that he in the town of Lebanon for the day to do somethings and then he remembered that one of his good friends lived in the area and felt like looking him up because he had not seen him in a while. He called his wife and told her to look up his number. He called him and they had been spending the day together. The older gentlemen asked him if he could take a look at his call because felt he it needed some work to be done. The young man proceeded to check his call and told him need some things to be changed and told him "let's go to AutoZone to pick the parts up." That's how they ended up there! We continued talking and I asked him how long has he been a Pastor and has he always lived in PA. The gentleman told me that he had lived in NY for over 15 years before moving to PA and that he attend had attend a church in the Bronx while he lived there....I just about almost fell over. I knew exactly what church he was talking about and where it was in the Bronx. You see I use to go to that church a lot when I was younger and in my teen years. We had a lot of youth conventions...youth services...etc. at that church...I even knew who the pastor of the church was! The church was a very intregal part of the Spanish Eastern Assemblies of God with whom my home church was afflitated with. My father-in-law was Asst. Superintendent of that district for years.

It was so awesome to see how God sent these two men to help us! The young man change the gauge, but when Sarah went to start the car...the battery was dead. They tried to cable hot wire it....but it was of no use. Robb had to buy a new battery and the guy installed it for him. (just so happen the battery was not in good condition).

by the time everything was finished...battery change...temperature gauge change, it was already 7:30 p.m. Robb thanked thanked the guys profusely. The guys told Robb..."we want to pray for you all...so you can reach you destination safely." We proceed to get in a circle...right there in front of AutoZone...and they started to pray..in Spanish. Let me tell you...the prayer was a powerful, authoritive prayer. The pray that a heavenly host of Angels prepared the way ahead...that no harm can touch us...that God's hands be with us all the way to Texas and that no obstacles stand in the way of God's works and His will! When the prayer was done and we got into the car, Sarah asked me to translate what they had said in their prayer because she had felt the Holy Spirit so strong. When I told her the above...she started to choke up and thanked God for his faithfullness. The older gentleman had given me his business card and told me to give him a call to make sure we had arrived safely. Isn't God awesome....It was an experience we will never forget.

Well, we got back on the road knowing that we had six more hours of travel before we got to Harrisonburg, VA where we had book our hotel for that night. We stopped to eat dinner and got back on the road by 9:30ish. We did not reach our hotel until 2:30 in the morning. We were exhausted but thanking God for his mercies...for we got there safe because of him. Amen!

Continuation....tomorrow...stay tuned...lol