A Prayer Request...

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SO.....

I was pulling out of the parking lot from my apartment this morning, and I heard a loud POP! The was immediately followed by a kind of wheezing sound coming from somewhere in the vicinity of my transmission and a loss of acceleration. I coasted to a nearby lot where I was able to leave my car for the afternoon, but tonight we have to tow it to my parents. This is pretty bad because it seems that my transmission has gotten up and run off on me. Maybe I would be better off describing it as a transmission suicide because of the loud noise I heard when it happened. There were no symptoms to cause me to think this might happen soon. I don't think there was any neglect on my part. (removing the blame from myself is only mildy comforting, mind you, when my truck no longer goes)

So, I'm hoping it's not an actual transmission suicide. I had that happen once before, a few years ago, and it is really expensive to buy a new transmission. To give you an idea: A rebuilt transmission for my truck is around $1,100!!! Of course, that does not include labor. We went to a junkyard before, and there it was only around $300-$400. Obviously one does not have a whole lot of quality there, and this is perhaps evident when one considers the fate of my transmission this morning.

I'm hoping that our (mine and my dad's) fears are misplaced and that it turns out to be something small that we can fix. I'm not just hoping, I'm praying, too! If you feel up to it, I would appreciate any and all prayers about this. There's a cool passage that my Musankisha and I read this morning in 1 Samuel:

Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

1 Samuel 14:6b

It's encouraging to read that passage. It's comforting to realize that the one who is called "Jehovah-Jireh" does not have that name for nothing.

One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, "Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side." But he did not tell his father.

Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.

On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh. One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba.

Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

"Do all that you have in mind," his armor-bearer said. "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul."

Jonathan said, "Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they say to us, 'Wait there until we come to you,' we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has given them into our hands."

So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. "Look!" said the Philistines. "The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in." The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, "Come up to us and we'll teach you a lesson."
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, "Climb up after me; the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel."

Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
Israel Routs the Philistines

Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.

1 Samuel 14:1-15