Goes-around-comes-aroung

Group, Sep/Oct 2000 by Rohs, Gary

STRANGE BUT TRUE

Our youth group caravan was driving through Canada to a workcamp when one of our three vans lost its serpentine belt-an essential item for basically everything in the motor.

Without the belt the disabled van could only go a short distance before overheating, so I drove my vanload of kids on ahead to the nearest town to find help. When we got there, though, and checked around, nothing was open-it was a holiday in Canada.

It started to rain, and we waited for five minutes while a train rumbled through town. Then as we backtracked past one of the closed auto parts stores we'd seen earlier, I saw a little boy inside. I stopped and knocked on the door. When a woman answered, I explained our situation and asked if she could sell me a serpentine heft for a Venture 4.0liter engine. She checked inventory and found one in stock. I asked her if we needed something to release or tighten the tension. Hanging on the wall behind her was a tension rod for serpentine belts. .the last one.

The woman told me that she only happened to be at the store for five minutes because a friend needed to pick up a can of paint. Yes, five minutes... the time we'd been delayed by the train.

It was raining hard now, and just off the exit ramp where we met up with the broken van, we spotted a church... a church with an overhang drive-through. We parked under the overhang and started working on getting the belt wound through the engine. A few minutes later, the church door opened and the secretary asked if we needed any help. We told her about our problem, and she immediately called a church member who owned an auto repair shop. He wasn't at home, but she talked to his son... an auto mechanic apprentice with lots of experience fixing serpentine belts. We asked if he'd mind checking our work, and he said he'd be right over.

By the time he got there, we were just figuring out that the tension puller was too long for the job. He had a special tool, though, at his father's shop.., just around the corner. He was there and back in a matter of minutes, and in a matter of seconds, the belt was on nice and tight.

We thanked them for their help and were just ready to leave when the rain stopped and the sun came out. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see a rainbow in the sky.

I sat in the driver's seat smiling at God. As the kids tumbled in, I heard, "That was really cool how, God helped us." Not "Weren't we lucky?" I didn't need a rainbow in the sky; I'd just heard a rainbow of praise.

Gary Rohs is a youth worker who lives in Maine.