I’d had an ear infection for a week, which made it difficult to drive because of the dizziness and nausea I was experiencing. My boss wanted to interview a prospective new pharmacist member for the pharmacy chain we managed, who lived in the Hunter Valley region, north west of Sydney. So he talked me into being the driver for the 5 hour round trip, so he could make business calls on his mobile phone.
Now my boss really loved BMW’s. This was his third BMW and he kept them in immaculate condition. The one we were driving this particular day was due to be traded in on the latest model in two weeks time.
We had been driving for about two and a quarter hours when the bitumen road abruptly ended and we started up a dirt road.
“Keep your eyes open, it’s on the left hand side, a two story brick house” My boss suggested.
I was looking but could not tell which two story brick house was the correct one. If only we had a lot number. Soon I came to a big dip in the road with a T-intersection down the bottom.
“No, no, you’ve gone past it. Turn around and do a u-turn” The boss commanded.
I slowed down, did a right hand turn and put it in reverse. As I swung my head around to reverse, the ear infection made my head spin. I decided to use the mirrors. As a motorbike was flying down the dip toward us I made a decision to go back quickly to get out of the way.
Everything looked good in the mirror as I moved quickly backwards. Suddenly there was a jolt, the car slipped backwards and in a split second we were pointing upwards at a 45 degree angle toward the horizon, but also were on a 45 degree angle along the length of the car, with his door facing the sky and my door facing the ground. I hit the brake immediately and dragged the handbrake on with a sickening crunch.
My boss looked at me and I was speechless. “What have you done?” was all he could get out.
We crawled out my side and surveyed the damage.
When I had reversed, all I had been able to see in the mirror was a grassy slope that was easily negotiable. But behind us was a concrete drain, which ran all the way through the road. It was approximately a metre high. As we went backwards, we were going fast enough to clear the drain and land on our back wheels in the ditch. Now the back wheels were one metre lower than the front ones, one of which was touching the top of the drain, the other one sticking up in the air at a 45 degree angle. This was not good, especially if my boss was serious about trading this one in.
“Oh, no, what have I done” I said to my boss who was torn between irritation and laughter.
We tried to lift the car to no avail. We called the Pharmacist to tell her we would be late. We also tried to ring some local tow truck drivers.
About four large men suddenly appeared out of their houses. Now this was 11am in the morning, so why these guys were home and not working is a question that went through my head. But not for long as my thoughts were shattered by their laughter.
“Ha, ha, you city folks, always getting into to trouble, Have a go at this would you boys. How’d you manage that mate?” the biggest bloke prodded me with his words.
“Ahhh, yeah, ha ha…. I dunno” was all I manage. “Can you boys give us a hand?”
Together we tried to lift the car out. And together we failed.
As the guys walked back to their houses, we were finally able to raise a tow truck which arrived about five minutes later. When it got to us I could barely hide my disappointment.
In my mind, a tow truck should have these big metal ‘arms’ with hooks on them. These ‘arms’ would have been lowered into the ditch and neatly hoisted the BMW out. But that would have been too easy. This truck just had a long, flat metal tray and underneath, a long chain with a hook on it.
As the driver surveyed the car I asked him a fair and reasonable question.
“Mate, when you put the hook on are you just going to drag it out of the ditch”
“Yep” he grunted.
“Umm..ok, when you drag it across the concrete lip of the drain before the back wheels make contact, what do you think will happen to the underside of the car?”
“Dunno” He looked up at me “Probably lose some of the muffler. There will be a fair bit of damage but there is nothing that you can do”.
Great, I thought. This is going to cost thousands. What am I going to do.
I had a thought. It was a prompting. “Is it ok if I try and lift the car when you pull on the chain?”
The guy looked at me and laughed “Do whatever you want mate if you think it will help”.
I got down in the ditch. The tow truck driver instructed my boss to get in his car. When the car was pulled out of the ditch, my boss was to put the brake on to stop it going into the ditch on the other side. ‘Great’ I thought ‘another 100kg to lift’.
I got on my knees and put my hands under the back bumper bar. I looked up at the sky – a perfect blue sky – and thought of God. God who had saved my daughter. Then I prayed this prayer.
“Lord, I really need your help. I have caused this problem. But can You help me fix it. Jesus Christ, son of the most high God, please lift this car for me?”
At that instant I stood up – with the car in my hands – but it wasn’t me that was lifting it. The car came up to waist height immediately. I felt the tension of the chain and took two steps forward and neatly popped the back wheels onto the road. I let go and staggered back, slowly realizing what had just happened.
My boss hit the brakes. He got out of his car. I walked around out of the ditch. The tow truck driver moved toward us.
“How did you do that?” my boss enquired of me.
“Fifty dollars thanks” The tow truck requested.
I watched as the money changed hands, bursting on the inside. I jumped in the passenger side of the car. When my boss got in he turned to me and asked again “How did you do that?”
“I just prayed”. A simple but true answer.
My boss, knowing that I had undergone some major changes in the spiritual department replied “That would be about right” and we drove on. I was just glowing on the inside because I had seen the miraculous hand of God at work with my own eyes. It would not be the last time the Lord would answer prayers with amazing signs and wonders. He was questioned about the validity of this story by a colleague three years later in front of our whole team.. John confirmed the story and when asked how, the then sixty nine year old man said “The Holy Spirit”.
By Pastor Baz
By Pastor Baz
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