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The Motor Home Deal
By Cliff Popkey
I stopped at the first exit
and found that the service stations there had no one on duty that could help
us. So I added some fuel cleaner and fuel booster that Louis had given me and
we started off again. The motor home seemed to be fine again until we entered
the freeway and the chugging and shaking began yet again.
The next exit was fifteen miles and we chugged along well below the speed limit, reaching speeds of twenty miles an hour going down the mountains and ten going up. The home was shaking so badly that I thought at any moment it would start throwing parts off into the roadway. After an hour of chugging we arrived at the next exit only to find that there wasn’t anyone there to help us either and the helpful clerk at the gas station pointed out that it wasn’t likely that there would be anyone at the next exit either, because it was a holiday. I was beside myself as I sat and wondered how I would get my family home.
After waiting for the home to cool down for lack of a better idea, I started it up and we drove off once more. Again it drove fine until we pulled on to the freeway and then the chugging started again.
The next exit was fifteen miles and we chugged along well below the speed limit, reaching speeds of twenty miles an hour going down the mountains and ten going up. The home was shaking so badly that I thought at any moment it would start throwing parts off into the roadway. After an hour of chugging we arrived at the next exit only to find that there wasn’t anyone there to help us either and the helpful clerk at the gas station pointed out that it wasn’t likely that there would be anyone at the next exit either, because it was a holiday. I was beside myself as I sat and wondered how I would get my family home.
After waiting for the home to cool down for lack of a better idea, I started it up and we drove off once more. Again it drove fine until we pulled on to the freeway and then the chugging started again.
Now our youngest daughter,
who is from my first marriage, is due home by court order at 6 pm the next day,
Monday. It was now 5 pm on Sunday and we are still eight hundred miles from
home. The divorce was extremely contentious, I won’t go into why here, so I was
on a strict schedule with court fines and loss of time with my daughter at
stake for failing to adhere to the schedule.
We pressed on knowing that we had no choice despite the fact that we were traveling at under twenty miles an hour in a motor home about to shake itself to pieces. It was complete chaos inside the home as the dogs were barking at the strange sounds, the cats kept running and jumping trying to get away from falling items. The girls were whiny because they were scared and my wife was asking question after question as to what I might think the problem was and how was I going to fix it.
Finally at my wits end I started to shout and then bang my fist on the wheel for everyone to be quiet. I was angry though I knew I had only myself to blame for bring the family this far from home in this old piece of junk. And then it struck me like a slap in my face that I should follow the preacher’s advice.
We pressed on knowing that we had no choice despite the fact that we were traveling at under twenty miles an hour in a motor home about to shake itself to pieces. It was complete chaos inside the home as the dogs were barking at the strange sounds, the cats kept running and jumping trying to get away from falling items. The girls were whiny because they were scared and my wife was asking question after question as to what I might think the problem was and how was I going to fix it.
Finally at my wits end I started to shout and then bang my fist on the wheel for everyone to be quiet. I was angry though I knew I had only myself to blame for bring the family this far from home in this old piece of junk. And then it struck me like a slap in my face that I should follow the preacher’s advice.
I started to pray out loud.
“Oh Lord, God! Help me! I can’t be late and you know why so please help
me! The preacher said that a real man isn’t afraid to pray to you in front of
his family or out loud, so here I am. I need your help to get my family home
and I don’t care if it takes $2,000 dollars to repair this thing once I get
home but I need you get me there! Amen!”
Just then my wife touched my arm and pointed to a small hill we were approaching and on that small hill were three crosses. I stared at them as we approached, the motor home still chugging and shaking but then the strangest thing happened. Just as we drew even with the crosses the motor home coughed loudly and suddenly began running smoothly with no hesitation. Its speed immediately picked up and quickly reached seventy miles and hour. My wife and I both looked at each other and at the same moment said. “Thank You Lord!”
We drove home through the night without any more trouble. We stopped for gas and stopped to eat and the motor home ran perfectly well all the way home. We arrived home the following morning at seven am and parked the motor home off to the side of the driveway because as both my wife and I joked, we’d have to spend two grand before it’ll run again.
It turned out that the joke was on us. The motor home to this day will not run. After spending a few hundred dollars to change the carburetor I was unable to get the engine to even turnover. I paid to have several mechanics come and give estimates as to how much it would take to get it back on the road. After almost a year it was still setting in the side yard. None of the mechanics could really say what was wrong, so my wife gave it to her brother who was in need of a place to live at his new farm while he was building a house and so he towed it off. Now he had heard our story of how it was chugging and how we made a deal with God that meant it would take two grand to get it running again and he said he’d fix it and he knew it wouldn’t take two grand.
Two years later he still didn’t have it running and he had spent almost two thousand dollars on the engine repairs when he had stopped trying to fix it as he was out of ideas as to what was left to replace. He then gave the home to a friend of his who is still using it today as a hunting cabin in the northern woods. He towed up there because he couldn’t get it running either and he hasn’t made any further efforts to get it running since. He just wants for shelter anyways.
I learned a good deal that weekend and I hope to continue to share what I have learned as the years go by. God is real. As real as you’ll let him be. He does care and he will help but you have to be open to his help. And if you make a deal with him, he’ll hold up his end and you better hold up yours because he’s expecting you to be as good to your word as he was to his. I was good to my word because I did start going to church the very next Sunday. The motor home deal made me believe in God, what will it take for you to believe?
Just then my wife touched my arm and pointed to a small hill we were approaching and on that small hill were three crosses. I stared at them as we approached, the motor home still chugging and shaking but then the strangest thing happened. Just as we drew even with the crosses the motor home coughed loudly and suddenly began running smoothly with no hesitation. Its speed immediately picked up and quickly reached seventy miles and hour. My wife and I both looked at each other and at the same moment said. “Thank You Lord!”
We drove home through the night without any more trouble. We stopped for gas and stopped to eat and the motor home ran perfectly well all the way home. We arrived home the following morning at seven am and parked the motor home off to the side of the driveway because as both my wife and I joked, we’d have to spend two grand before it’ll run again.
It turned out that the joke was on us. The motor home to this day will not run. After spending a few hundred dollars to change the carburetor I was unable to get the engine to even turnover. I paid to have several mechanics come and give estimates as to how much it would take to get it back on the road. After almost a year it was still setting in the side yard. None of the mechanics could really say what was wrong, so my wife gave it to her brother who was in need of a place to live at his new farm while he was building a house and so he towed it off. Now he had heard our story of how it was chugging and how we made a deal with God that meant it would take two grand to get it running again and he said he’d fix it and he knew it wouldn’t take two grand.
Two years later he still didn’t have it running and he had spent almost two thousand dollars on the engine repairs when he had stopped trying to fix it as he was out of ideas as to what was left to replace. He then gave the home to a friend of his who is still using it today as a hunting cabin in the northern woods. He towed up there because he couldn’t get it running either and he hasn’t made any further efforts to get it running since. He just wants for shelter anyways.
I learned a good deal that weekend and I hope to continue to share what I have learned as the years go by. God is real. As real as you’ll let him be. He does care and he will help but you have to be open to his help. And if you make a deal with him, he’ll hold up his end and you better hold up yours because he’s expecting you to be as good to your word as he was to his. I was good to my word because I did start going to church the very next Sunday. The motor home deal made me believe in God, what will it take for you to believe?
Cliff Popkey is a fifty
four year old retired disabled man living in Florida. He is a former businessman and sale representative as well as being a
local politian. Now reformed. The story is true. This is what happened to Cliff and
what brought him to God. Cliff Popkey is married and has two daughters and two
grandchildren. His email is cliffpopkey@live.com