Hospitality comes when we least expect it

Sometimes hospitality comes when we least expect it. Sometimes it is the very thing that makes the worst situations bearable. I thought to fire up the blog again I would reflect on my Christmas eve this year where I was stranded in Pineville, KY for 6 hours. Pineville is an incredibly small town with a few auto shops, a school, a small hospital, and some fast food joints. There isn't much to it in fact after two stoplights and a blink you will surely have missed the roaring metropolis that I have driven by for several years. In a town just southeast of Pineville by a couple of miles I realized that my car was having bad problems. I stopped to get fluids to add and realized that my car was dumping out coolant as fast as I was adding it. Consulting a man in the parking lot as well as the guys working in the auto parts store they suggested that I make a run for a shop before it closed out of fear that I may have blown a head gasket or cracked my block. That would be the worst case scenario luckily the man in the parking lot suggested a water pump problem. I having fixed one of those in my former vehicle was much less scared but rushed to get my car to a place for repairs. I so intently watching the temperature of my engine rise drove right past Middlesborro hoping to see a place to roll my car into stopping every few moments to add fluid and let my car cool I prayed fervently not for healing as much as hope to make it where I needed to go. I hoped and prayed that my car would make it to the top of the hill so as to coast down into the town where I needed to go. I state police officer stopped and advised me on the best place to get repairs. Elliot's Auto Parts it fit both my criteria it was well known for being good and it was open on Christmas eve. I rolled me car down the hill in neutral only to be stopped at a light where I would start it again and coast my way to the shop. I rolled up steaming and stumbled out of my car rushing into a small shop that looked a little rough and haphazard only to relay my story and ask if they could get me on the road to Indiana or at least back to Tennessee where I was from. By this point they had heard the noise as I pulled in and they saw the smoke. Attempting to cool it off and do a quick diagnostic they came to the conclusion that it could be really bad or not as bad. It had to cool so I took a spot on the bench went to the bathroom around back and waited. I came back only to be informed the owner had bought lunch and had a couple of sandwiches coming for me. They were hoping to close by two that day. I rolled in at 10:30 there was still hope. Hospitality is funny because sometimes it comes through generosity like a sandwich and sometimes it comes through hearing people out and getting them on their way as best as we can. Glen the owner was full of encouragement telling me not to get to excited because we still hadn't figured out what was wrong. Dooey an old timer working on my car was confident that the water pump was bad and that it was make a lot of noise. Sure enough ASE certified or not they diagnosed the problem got parts of Middlesborro the town I passed and proceeded to fix my car. It was a heck of a job but after pulled out the old parts and examining them we concluded or more so they concluded and I agreed that it was the water pump that was making the noise. The doomsday talk was over. I made the appropriate calls to people and prepared myself to hit the road making a couple of CD's and starting to recount my day. I started this around 2:30 after Glen was wanting to close. He continued to let people come on in and with every phone call offered to help where he could. They finished my car around 4:30 six hours after I had arrived. My day started early so that I could make it back to Indiana and I spent most of my day with Sam a mechanic who worked on my car a lot in fact probably fixed it, Dooey who also worked on my car and encouraged me throughout the day as he told his yarns of life, and finally Glen who owns the shop who stayed open probably till 6 PM that night helping people like me. He warned me of the oil leak and I had I paid him the $200 which was pretty reasonable for the amount of trouble my car he put me on my way telling me to be careful and to have a merry Christmas. You see they were there and they worked to get me back going. I made it home for Christmas arrived at my destination 10ish that night only 8 hours later than I planned but all the more full of understanding about how our prayers are answered by people. I am not saying God didn't orchestrate that experience or use Glen and his workers to fulfill his will I am just challenged by these guys and their willingness to help me out on a day when everybody else had clocked out to go home. The challenge the prophetic message isn't merely that of hospitality but it goes deep it is something that I have learned from a favorite author a contemporary of ours Shane Claiborne when he tells us to be the answer to the prayers of the world because God created us to do his will and his work here on earth. Let's fulfill those needs just as God did through Glen, Sam, Dooey and those guys who worked on my car. Peace and Good Night, Deke.