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Old Faithful
Old Faithful
 
Have you ever spent hours upon hours in an old, white church van when its 95 degrees, 90% humidity, and no AC before??  Well, that pretty much sums up our mode of transportation for our month in Malaysia.  We spent the most time in the church van we lovingly called ‘Old Faithful’ our third week in Malaysia.  The pastor we were with, Pastor Richard, was the head of three churches, all three in different towns about 30-45 minutes away from each other and the town he lived in.  We went to each town 2 to 3 times a day all week, so needless to say, we spent a lot of time in that van.

Did I mention it was old?

Apparently being an old van with a motor that is not always trustworthy did not stop our pastor from going about 90 mph from town to town on a two lane, windy road.  We had places to go!  We all learned a little bit more about prayer in that van, that’s for sure.  

So our times in the van were memorable and I’m not kidding when I say we learned how to pray while we were in the van.  After a couple of rides in the van, it was apparent that you never quite knew if the van would start this time or not.  Same thing went for stop signs, traffic jams, etc.  Can anyone relate??  You know that feeling when the engine starts to putter and there is a few seconds where you’re not sure if your going to make it?  We felt like that a lot with ‘Old Faithful’.  

One of the last days we were with Pastor Richard, we were stopped in traffic when, don’t you know, that the van puttered to a stop and died in the middle of the road.  The horns began honking, the men began yelling, and we began praying.  “Please, Lord, let the van start.”  “Lord, we know you can start the van.”  “God we trust you to start the van.”  Well, after a few minutes of no success, I turned to Dustin and said, “Should we get out and push?”  Dustin looked at me and said, “What happened to not having a Plan B?”  

Earlier in the week we had all talked about how Americans like to pray sometimes, but if that doesn’t work, they take matters into their own hands and ‘help God out’ by having a Plan B just in case.  We also talked about the reason so many miracles you hear about happen in Africa is because their Plan A, B, and C is to pray.  They don’t have any other choice, no back up plans.  They depend 100% on God to do the work the way He wants it to be done.

So back in the van, I was convicted that yet again, I had made my own plans JUST IN CASE God hadn’t heard our prayers.  Thankfully, the rest of my team continued to pray and after another couple minutes, the van started and we were on our way.  Not two hours later were we back in the van when again, stopped at a stop light, the van made that awful puttering noise and died.  Again, our prayers rose out from the van.  After a few minutes, I shouted, “Lord, we have no plan B!”  and wouldn’t you know the van came to life the instant the words came out of my mouth.  Lesson learned!
 
Samuel
 This is our contact’s son, Samuel, and he was awesome!