Testimony

My pickup truck is a major blessing. Before I got this vehicle I had to carpool to work and hitch rides to church. But God answered my prayers and gave me a vehicle. I’ve never liked having to rely on someone else to get me places on time. Nowadays, having your own ride is almost a necessity.

Understandably, my vehicle has become a critical support to my daily life. With everyone going in different directions at different times, there’s no way I could go back to thumbing it. So when my truck began idling rough and using a lot of gas, I knew God was going to have to intervene.

The “Check Engine” light came on months ago. More than a year ago, actually. I knew what was wrong; I didn’t need a diagnostic to tell me. An Oxygen sensor had gone bad. But I also knew that meant leaving my truck in the shop for a few days while they repair it. The cost of the repairs wasn’t the problem; it was being without my ride.

About two weeks ago I finally decided enough was enough; it was time to fix the truck. I saved up what I thought would be plenty of money to pay for the repairs, and last Thursday I went to the dealer to get them to replace all the Oxygen sensors (I figured if one was bad, they’d all eventually go, so I might as well replace them now.)

A technician happened to be standing nearby and overheard my conversation with the salesman. He was in doubt that my problem was a faulty Oxygen sensor, and he talked me into that diagnostic. Only one problem: I’ll have to leave my truck with them for two days, just to run the diagnostic. Then we can talk repairs.

I needed an answer from God about what to do. I prayed for wisdom, and I turned the whole matter over to the Lord. The next day I felt impressed to go to another dealer. They were able to run the diagnostic immediately! Thank God I was led by the Spirit; that saved me one whole session of being without my truck. But then they showed me the result of the diagnostic.

I did in fact need a new Oxygen sensor, and some other sensor, plus some kind of valve. And they also wanted to do a fuel injection cleaning. These four things, including parts and labor, came out to more than six hundred dollars. Oh yeah, and they would need to keep my vehicle for a couple days to perform the repairs. I told them I’d get back with them.

Leaving the dealership, wondering how all this would turn out, I felt in my spirit that I should go to the auto parts store. At first I didn’t recognize it as a leading; I thought it was just me wanting to hang out at the parts shop. But after a few miles of driving, the leading became more persistent and I realized it was God talking to me. I said out loud, “Oh! That’s You, isn’t it!”

I drove straight to the Auto Zone on Ellis Avenue. That’s the store I had in my heart. The salesman pulled up the parts I needed on the computer, and they were all in stock. Combined, the parts were going to cost me about one hundred fifty dollars. I didn’t have time to do the repairs this weekend, so I asked him to print out the parts list for me and I’d be back next Saturday.

On the way to the house, I had a feeling in my spirit to go to another parts store. I stopped by the O’Reilly’s in Byram to see my friend, Jerry, who works there. I told one of the other guys my story, and that I wasn’t all too excited about crawling around in the dirt replacing Oxygen sensors. Then he pointed to the fellow beside me and said, “He’s the one you need to talk to about that. He’ll get you fixed up.” It was Shannon from Richard’s Front End.

Shannon told me to bring the truck over to his shop so he could plug the computer into it and see what was the problem. His computer said there was only one bad sensor, and it wasn’t an Oxygen sensor. He showed me where it was located under the hood, and then said he wouldn’t replace it for me because his ten-year-old daughter could do it. It was a matter of removing two screws and unplugging the electrical connection and air hoses to change it out. He also showed me a valve on the intake manifold I should clean out with carburetor cleaner.

So I went back to O’Reilly’s to get the sensor I needed and a bottle of carburetor cleaner and a bottle of fuel injector cleaner (which I later discovered wasn’t even necessary.) All total, I spent about sixty six dollars on parts and supplies, and about twenty minutes making the repairs: ten minutes actually working, and another ten laughing back and forth with my dad about the whole situation!

I could testify about how much money God saved me (around six hundred dollars), and I could testify about how much time God saved me (nearly a work week without my truck), but the real testimony is how Holy Spirit led me. I would never have thought this is how it would turn out; I was going to replace three sensors which didn’t need replacing, and I’d still have a malfunctioning vehicle. Thank God, He knows everything, even how to fix a truck!

~Jonathan

September 30th, 2007 · Back to Top · Tagged: Blog, Testimonies

Zeal

A story about my life as a missionary in Thailand.

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