I received the following email from a Parkview person in response to Chuck Howard’s sermon a few weeks back. Thought I’d share it here.

The question has been posed, What are we thankful for and how has God been active in our lives as of recent? Well, here you go…

Two weeks ago Sunday night, my daughter was taking her nightly shower, when she yelled out “Why is the water doing this?!” I run in to check and see what the problem is, and see that we are losing water pressure, fast.

Did I mention this is on a Sunday night, and my workweek is booked solid at this point?

Just to add a little spice to life, my money is all tied up, and this particular week we had none to spare. Thank God I have electrical ability and tools to trouble shoot and get things back up and running where they ought to be, right? Wrong! Upon checking things out, I found the problem was underground-our well pump. Now, I had the sinking feeling (all puns intended!) because now I realize that I have neither the right tools nor knowledge to deal with this problem. Anyone who has a well knows that it can be very expensive to fix, and like I said, I just didn’t have the money on hand.

People say always put your trust in God. I really try to. The Holy Spirit is great, but I didn’t see how He could be able to fix my well. Once again, I stand corrected, because the next 2 days of my life show I have a lot to learn about God’s repairing abilities.

I called someone from Parkview about buying aa used well pump that I thought they had, thinking I could purchase it secondhand and save a bit of money this way. I was told two things without pause by the kind voice on the other end of the phone, the pump was unavailable, and that he would give me a loan the next day to purchase a new one.

When you don’t have running water in your house, that offer is miraculous and awesome in and of itself. But, it gets better!

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any one who could help physically with the repair on Monday. Both my wife and I had to work that day, anyways, so, after work, we headed over to our good neighbor, who was also watching our daughter, too, and showered at their place, then went home.

Now came Tuesday, my packed day-new client, big rush job. My client called to say the job was being unexpectedly postponed for a few days. Now I know why the pump could not be repaired on Monday evening! I got the money, I got the parts, and throughout the day, my buddies began to filter in to come and help us out. By 1:00 PM, we began ripping apart the well, and the first attempt at pulling the pump out makes me realize something is not quite right. At the very second I begin to feel this way, my phone rings, and it’s the one guy I really needed help from, because he had experience in this kind of thing. The rest of us were winging it!

It is interesting to me that the total amount of time I have spent with this particular individual had been about 5 minutes, up till this day. At the drop of a hat, he is at my door, with tools in hand, ready to jump in and help me fix my problem. Did I mention he goes to Parkview, too?

We are all pulling out what seems like miles of rusty pipe, expecting the well pump to come out at last, and then we find out there is another problem. We had a broken part of the well that apparently is not made anymore! Just think, I have an antique right in my own yard, and underground, to boot! Regardless of that problem, and several hours later, we all pulled together, and by the end of the day, the water was running and we were back to living in modern civilization.

Here’s an interesting sidebar- one of my buddies that helped that day is a truck driver-he was on call the day we needed his help, and he decided to call in and help us, taking off work, even though it meant a contract to drive that night and make some money he needed. He helped us out, and my well was fixed, so my buddy was happy. But God wasn’t done. The next morning, my friend called me from the road, on a nice long drive for his trucking company that turned into a long week of work, exactly what he needed. While on the phone, he told us he liked the way this whole “God thing” works. The best part is that he normally wouldn’t say that. So God is working in our friend’s life, too! Anyway, thanks to all who helped us out of our crisis, and most of all, thank you God!!

Sincerely,
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