I moved to a new area from out of state to take a new job. This job was an advancement in my career, which I had been working toward. Not long after I started my new job, two coworkers invited me to their household fellowship. I began to attend fellowship faithfully and not long after was able to take the Foundational Class two times in an eight-week period. I was so thrilled with this knowledge from God’s Word that I signed up for the Word Over the World Ambassador program. After learning how good God is, my only logical conclusion was to tell as many people as I could. Now, within six months of taking this job, I found myself leaving it for the advancement of God’s Word.
I was packing my car, preparing for our fellowship’s trip together to the Rock of Ages. On one of my trips carrying stuff to the car, a bee flew down from the rafters of the garage and stung me on the side of the face. I had not been stung since I was about eight years old. That time I was taken to the hospital because of swelling and because I passed out. This time, I went into the house, ran cold water on my face, and prayed. Then I kept packing my car, occasionally checking myself to find no swelling and no ill effect, except the tiny red hole where I had been stung.
As I was working, I realized it was getting very close to noon. I had to get to the bank to close my bank account. On my way to the bank, the clutch went out on my car. I recognized it immediately, jumped out, and hitchhiked the rest of the way to the bank and made it there before it closed. When I got back to my car, I headed south of town, limping my car to a local repair shop. It was a junkyard that did full restorations and repairs on the type of car I had. When I arrived, I rolled right into their service building.
I knew the two men that worked there. I had been there a couple of times before, looking for parts for my car. I told the owner I needed a clutch put in. He said, “We’re closed.” (His coworker was shuffling around the building, closing doors and turning off lights.) This car’s engine was located in the back of the car. We were each kneeling on one knee behind the car with the engine door up as I was explaining my situation to him. I explained to him that I was moving out of town at the end of the day, I had emptied my bank account, and all of my necessary worldly possessions were inside of my car. He said, “We’re closed.”
I then said, “Okay, this is what’s really happening….” I explained to him that I was leaving to go to Ohio to be trained and sent out to speak God’s Word. I do not recall all of the things I said to him about the goodness of God and my commissioning to stand and speak for Him, but I remember distinctly concluding my explanation saying, “And my adversary, the Devil, is trying to stop me.” He kept looking at me as he yelled to his coworker, “Hey, George, we’re putting a clutch in over here.”
I was on the road less than an hour later.
Throughout my life, I had always known that God loved me and cared about me, even though I recognized I didn’t always live a godly lifestyle. The Foundational Class showed me from God’s Word how much God loved me and how He is good always. For years I had heard people say that God did evil things to people to teach them lessons. This never seemed right to me. Now the ministry showed me from God’s own Word how good He is. So the attacks on my life that day were not “God testing me” to see if I would do His will or “signs from heaven” to stop me from making a commitment to the ministry. Instead, this experience confirmed what I had learned from God’s Word in the last few weeks—that with God I can have victory no matter the circumstances, and speaking the Word brings results!