A few years back I did a long car trip down to Panama and all points in between there and Guatemala.

As I returned to El Salvador I was asked to share a couple of road stories with a women�s Bible study group and they encouraged me to include them in my next newsletter as a testimony of God�s faithfulness.

I had encountered some terrible car trouble in Nicaragua due to the horrific conditions of the roads. One of the rims of a tire was bent backwards by potholes and lost all its air and the undercasing of my little Ford Festiva which held the transmission fluid was cracked open and my car wouldn't move. I was on the side of the road about 10 miles from the capital and just cried, rather loudly out to God to HELP ME!! Within moments he provided a van with a driver actually from Guatemala who along with his teen nephew helped me, towed me to a friends house who immediately fixed my car and hardly charged me a thing. I had to ask him about the money and force it on him.

Even though I know God is My Provider, I felt moments of helplessness and just wanted to be held, something in my life that just doesn�t happen. At one point I put my head briefly on the arm of the man who helped rescue me from my car troubles, wanting just to lean on someone physically ever so briefly. Well the next morning as I prepared to leave my hotel room I decided to turn on the television, it had 50 channels which is something I had not experienced in a long time, didn't even have a TV. The night before I was overwhelmed at how many choices there were. Well I got to channel 23 as I had started from the first. All of the sudden it was Z-TV, the Christian channel based in Florida remember I am in a second class hotel in Manaugua, Nicaragua. They play Christian videos 24 hours a day and sell Christian products. The group, Point of Grace was just finishing a song, they�re an all girl group. The next song that came on was a real favorite of mine by Pam Thum called, �No Shadows, No Doubts�. I used to play it in Belize on the air and it was a theme song for me as the words are �unconditional commitment is what I�m talkin� about�. It is upbeat and stresses that once you follow the Lord there is no turning back. When the credits at the end came on I saw the album was entitled, �Faithful�, which I didn�t know because we only had a single cut on a record company released CD. You see before I left on this trip many people said I was crazy to embark on such a journey, but one afternoon the Lord very clearly said to me, "S.E. just keep giving Me opportunity to prove Myself faithful", so I rested in that. I thought, that God, He is something else, but the story goes on. The next video was the beautiful song by a real favorite, Rich Mullins. The song title is �Hold me Jesus�. I almost cried, oh knowing me and even as I write this remembering, I did cry. I grabbed my headset and plugged it into the TV and turned the song up real loud with eyes closed to just absorb the words and music. I was blown away, NOW FOR THE CLINCHER, the next song was by a new artist, a good song but I had to go to the bathroom during that one. I left the room and when I returned Z-TV was gone and the cartoon network was on!!! The channel was the same 23, and it wasn�t the top or bottom of the hour! FIGURE FOR YOURSELF!!!

Okay my next story I think shows God�s love for others and His desire to reach people. I�d left San Jose, Costa Rica and set out for Panama with a full tank of gas. In passing the city of David, I noticed there was about a quarter tank, but there had been plenty of places to get gas, so I went on. Well I hit a stretch of fairly deserted road and the needle was going further down, but I had a town called Santiago coming up and I planned to stay the night. Certainly I would make it there.

Well all the sudden my car stopped. I just couldn�t believe it, but I had to laugh because I was the one who had decided not to bring my extra gas can for reserve. Well there were a few humble houses off the road and I quickly drew attention. I yelled out, �Yo tengo una problema� that is- I have a problem. So a man responds he�d be there in a few minutes. He had a gas can alas no gas, but he summoned the neighbors and several young boys to ride their bikes and try to find me some gas. After thirty minutes it was determined that none was available, finally I flagged down a passing truck. We gave them the gas can and a couple of dollars to buy the gas and return. By this time I had a little crowd around my car of boys and young men. One asked about the decorations on my dash. Since coming to the mainland, boy am I from Hawaii or what?? I have had on my dash a lovely and interesting shell lei from Fiji, given to me by my pastor before leaving the islands. In traveling I have collected shells and I have pine cones from the Grand Canyon and Honduras, but the centerpiece is a little bride. She is blond and perfect in every way, I tell people that it is the bride of Christ. It has stimulated some interesting discussions. Once a missionary and her three daughters were in the car and they inquired as to the meaning of my collection. When the mom left the car for a minute, one of the girls about seven years old, popped up very seriously, �I didn�t know Jesus had a wife.� But any way my dash witness area opened the door for me there by the side of the road in rural Panama to tell these guys who listened intently as I spoke about the return of Jesus and how He is coming for His bride, the Church. It was simple but I felt certainly impacting, this gringa in the middle of nowhere with total peace, gasless talking about Jesus and in spanish mind you. Maybe they had never heard that He was returning.