The Roads We Travel!

ROADS WE TRAVEL? Where are we going?

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

DOES GOD REALLY KNOW THE ROADS WE NEED TO TAKE?

HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA AND A BROKEN DOWN BUS?

Many years ago I had taken 42 people to church at Raceland, Kentucky on our 54 passenger bus. As I was driving the bus back in the mountains I saw sparks flying from the front end. It was raining real hard.

I pulled the bus over and got out, I could not find anything wrong.

A couple of men searched for a problem and we found nothing.

The men started to load back on the bus and Deed kicked the left front tire and the tire fell off.

Here I was in the middle of no where with 42 people, it was raining, just the mercies of God that the wheel had not came off the bus while we were driving and a bus load of church people could have died that night.

Many churches from the area loaned us their vans and about day break we got all the people back home. We slept a few hours and several men went with me back to the bus sitting on 23. The men started working. We needed a bearing and a racine for the front end. We traveled many miles looking for the pieces to the Chevy 54 passenger bus. No one had the parts we

needed. We went to fancy places and big parts places and truck parts stores all over the area. The rain was pouring down, we were soaked, exhausted and our funds were so limited. Most of the computers informed us

that we could no longer find the needed parts anywhere.

As the men worked, I cried and prayed. We were not familiar with that area.

We headed into West Virginia searching for a truck parts place. There were many coal trucks working the area. We got very lost. We drove and drove and we got so lost we didn’t know what to do. The man driving us in a Cadillac was so frustrated and we didn’t have any money. I prayed for the men and the bus. We ended up on a dead end street at an old, old garage that was surrounded by junk. One of the men said, Preacher has

prayed, now let us trust God. He said, THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE.

I said if all those fancy truck parts places can’t get the part, what makes you think this place will have it?

The sinner man said, PREACHER, DID YOU PRAY? CAN GOD HELP US? I THINK GOD LEAD US HERE?

He jumped out of the car, ran in the dirty, dusty, junky garage and laid our parts down on the counter.

There behind the counter was an old man that could barely walk. He was almost blind. We explained we was from a church, our bus was broken down on 23 back in Kentucky. WE HAVE TO HAVE THESE PARTS.

The old man got out a magnifying glass looked at the parts and wrote down the numbers and he disappeared. He was gone a long time. He returned just whistling and said, I have everything you need right here. He even had some new parts that we never dreamed of finding. The boxes were so old they had the invoice numbers of Noah’s Ark on them.

The old man said these have set on the shelf here many, many years.

He said, I would start to throw them away and something would say,

NO, KEEP THEM --- YOU NEVER KNOW WHO MIGHT COME IN AND NEED THEM.

I asked the old man, HOW MUCH?

He answered me: They have set on the shelf here over 15 years, I can’t find them in a book, --- Preacher ---You can have them all for free.

The parts looked like they were brand new.

IF WE HAD NOT GOT LOST, I MEAN TERRIBLY LOST, WE WOULD HAVE NEVER FOUND THIS RUN DOWN PLACE. The man never even had a phone?

If we had found the parts at a TRUCK PARTS PLACE THEY WOULD HAVE RAN OVER $350.00, AND WHILE I WAS FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY AND WET,

GOD LEAD US TO A KIND OLD MAN WITH THE PARTS WE NEEDED JUST LIKE WE HAD SPECIAL ORDERED THEM.

We got lost several times returning to the bus. A sinner man with us saw God work, and we returned to the bus, jacked it up, the men did the repairs and I stood and praised God. The roads we traveled that

day seemed aimless and hopeless, but there was a Big God leading us all the way. A few years later that sinner man came to know Jesus as his Savior, and when I see him he tells me, HOW GOD LEAD US THAT COLD WET DAY!