It's Back!

Praise the Lord! I got my car back this week! My uncle dropped it off at my house the other night. Now I have a way to get to school!
     If you're wondering what happened to my car in the first place, allow me to clear that up for you: No, it was not impounded. There are no legal problems with my car. Instead, the problems were mechanical. I needed to repair my car.
     Thankfully, I was blessed with an uncle who owns a junkyard. For my whopping one week off for the Summer (that's what Summers are like at Drexel), I worked with him down on the yard to take care of the engine. He showed me how to take everything apart to rip the engine out. I am very thankful for him doing that for me, because he actually sacrificed a week's worth of work to do it. My engine had a bad head gasket and was burning antifreeze too quickly. There was an exhaust leak, which made the car sound more or less like a monster truck. It also had some problems with oil blow-by, but that usually happens with cars whose engines have over 120,000 miles! As you can see there's a lot of problems with my car. My uncle was the one who gave it to me, and he told me it was going to need some work. I began calling the car my "Millenium Falcon" because certain things would decide to quit on me right when I needed them! There goes that hyperdrive!
     Despite all the problems, I have not minded doing the work on my car. Sure it can be annoying when it won't start, but I am learning why it won't start. I am learing how to work on my car, which will help me to take better care of it in the long run. Let's not forget now, that Luke Skywalker thought the Millenium Falcon was a piece of junk when he first saw it. What happened there? That ship ended up being the most kick butt thing in the galaxy!
     So, back to the junkyard:  I thought we were going to rebuild the engine, but thankfully, my uncle already had an engine waiting to go back in its place. That made things a lot easier. What a week that was. I don't think hell itself could be any hotter. It's one thing to work in the heat, but it's another to work in the heat with your hands covered in grease. There is no easy way to wipe the sweat from your brow without getting smudged.
     After that week's worth of labor, the car still wasn't ready. I began to get worried, because I was starting my next term of school and I needed it! I took the train for a week, then came back to work with my uncle on the weekend. Strike two, it still wasn't ready. Another week of taking the train. The following weekend, I could only afford to come down on Saturday. This was going to be it; I probably wouldn't be able to come down for another weekend until late July. We actually ended up staying up the whole night to get the car running! No-one made us do that, it just sorta happened. We just kept working and didn't care to notice what time it was. The kicker of it all is that even after doing that, it still wasn't ready! We got the engine to start up, but the timing needed adjustment. I took it for a quick test drive and couldn't get it to behave. I had my foot pressed to the floor and the car only moved at about 10 mph.
     I was exhausted, frustrated, and almost ready to cry. I could take the train another week, but it was going to be very difficult without my car. Instead of screaming profanities or smashing something, I prayed for God to help the sitaution and left it in His hands. I was at my wit's end. Deep down I knew He would take care of me, but it was so hard to see how. I didn't know when I would have time to come back to finish my car. I was upset, and angry, but I resisted the temptation to despair. I put my trust in Him.
     How is it that God always knows how to surprise you at the time you need it most? God opened up some free time for my uncle to adjust the engine. I got my car back this week, right at a time that I was stressing out over studying for a Mid-term. I've been having trouble in school this year and the transportation issue just makes it that much better. You see, I can get to school on the train with very little problem, but leaving school is the hard part. Because of the scheduled nature of the train, it's harder to leave school when I want to leave. When I need to talk to one of my teachers or get some help with homework, it gives great peace of mind to know that I don't need to leave early to catch the train. I can just sit there and work. This term I'm going to need all the help I can get. Seeing how the Lord provided for me this week is helping me to trust Him more each day. I feel more confident about this term already.