AEAMT - Angels Encamped About Me, Two!!

They had an older pickup truck and felt that it would be much safer traveling in my car. Dawn, giggling, said that I could feel free to come along, too, if I wanted. She told me that I could even have the great privilege of doing some of the driving. That was not what I wanted to hear, but thought that since my calendar was free I could do some visiting with my family and friends.

I hadn't considered that it was December and the mid-Atlantic Appalachians do get their share of winter. Later, I couldn't believe that I had neglected to listen to the national weather reports. This is something I'd always done previous to this particular trip, but not this time.

The trip consisted of traveling nearly 1,000 mile. We would leave Arkansas through Missouri, touching the southern tip of Illinois. Then we would drive the entire length of Kentucky and West Virginia. The last 100 miles would be through the Maryland Appalachian Mountains where you'll find some of the most beautiful scenery that God has given us.

The first haft of the trip was uneventful and routine. Usually, I wouldn't get bored, but I was getting close this time.

About 50 miles east of Lexington, Kentucky we stopped to get gas and, of course, coffee. The coffee was to perk me up so I wouldn't be so weary.

I would have, by this time, turned the driving to the children but I didn't. I had a strange feeling that I must continue. I know now that it was the Holy Spirit encouraging me to continue because of what was about to unfold before us.

We pulled back onto I-64 at about 2 a.m. I felt alert in the brisk night air and the cool mist which was falling on the windshield. The road appeared coal black from the precipitation. With my 32 oz mug of coffee in my hand, I eased up to the 65 mph speed limit and of course, pushed on the 'cruise control' and sipped on my coffee.

We drove about an hour or so (100 miles east of Lexington) down the road on 'auto pilot'. I was listening to on of the Christian radio stations, while the wipers were slapping ill-timed to the music. Dawn was sleeping in the back seat, and my son (in law) was half-asleep in the front passenger's seat.

The roadway only looked wet, and felt solid under my wheels. Then it happened. I felt the steering wheel get loose. I suddenly realized that we lost all traction. The rear of the car began moving to the right. We were on what the truckers called 'black ice'. It simply looks wet and you can't see this ice on the road, but it most definitely is there.

At traumatic times such as this, everything seems to go in slow motion. I call this effect 'Mental Slowdown'. Never-the-less, I began having a silent, mental conversation with myself. As the car began sliding to the right, the talk went something like this:

Self? If I turn the wheel to the left, I'll spin us "clean to West Virginia.

If I turn my wheels to the right like my driving teacher told me, I'll slide into the guard rails and probably total my one year old car.

So what do I do? ...I'll turn my wheels to the right but I must watch my coffee, I don't want to spill it.

Dawn, try not to distract me. I am trying to drive... even if it is sideways.

Uh Oh! We're heading toward the median strip... sideways! No, the road! No, the median strip!

Oh, don't try to keep track, just don't spill the coffee!!

OHHH! We're dropping into the median! And still spinning.

I sure hope we don't turn over... It is kind of steep, ya know!

Hey, we're going up the other side. I think we're going to go into the oncoming lanes. Looks like I might be meeting someone I don't really care to meet right at the moment. Especially under these circumstances.

Well, We're going backward up the other side now. Let me look over my shoulder and check the traffic.

How 'bout that! No traffic!

Kaylon, who was quiet during this entire episode was the one to break the silence by saying, "Thank You, Jesus!"

Dawn informed us that she saw the guard rails pass us in the same direction at least four times.

We spun at least four times at 65 mph and on 'cruise control', and out of control. We came to a stop and all was intact. Even my wits. You can't get more blessed than that.

Now I was able to gather my thoughts. We hit absolutely nothing. I was wonderful! The ride was very smooth and silent, like traveling on a cloud. It was almost like sitting in my living room watching a film with the sound turned off.

I took a sip of my coffee, which amazingly, was still in my cup. I asked the kids if they were alright, and they were.

I was surprised that God would allowed a thing like this to happen, so I silently asked, "Lord, Where Are You? Don't You see us down here? Don't You know what the weather is like down here? Don't You care about your children who are in this car?

He, first reminded me that it was not His fault that I didn't check the weather forecasts.

I was told that there may be some inclement weather, but I didn't find out just how bad it was expected to be. I realized that it was my fault. His Word says that we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7), and that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

It was then He reassured me with the words to a beautiful praise chorus which goes like this:

Then He gently reminded me that he was there and took us safely through that obstacle course.

Even when the ride down the road of life gets rough, He is still there with us. When He lives within us, He can't get very far away.

I realized then that He was absolutely there all the time. He was protecting us. He kept us from death. The truly unique thing is that He gave me a song where I was saying, "yes, He is here with us." He was building my faith with each line. This gave it more of an impact on me. I should have been realizing this from the beginning; that He was in deed with us. After all, we did pray as usual before we left home. Why wouldn't He be with us (My driving isn't that bad)? Needless to say, the words to that song ran through the recesses of my mind for the remainder of the trip. We still had four hundred miles to go.

Sometimes we allow our surroundings to get in the way of our seeing our Lord, but we don't have to. The Word tells us to "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." We must keep our eyes on Christ. When we do, our needs, no matter what they are, will be supplied. When His angels are encamped about us, we will be protected even on he road.

We decided to continue on. We waited for semi trucks to go by, then we crossed back over the median and onto the highway. Since I realized that God wasn't going to bless stupidity, I travelled much slower... And I was singing, "He is here, Hallelujah..."

Things went rather well through Charleston, West Virginia, until we got on into the higher altitudes of West Virginia while traveling north on I-79.

Just south of Clarksburg, WV, it started snowing. Within a few minutes it was laying on the roadway, so we exited onto a side road and into a store/gas station business. We got a little food to keep us going and waited about a half an hour. The three of us discussed what we should do. I was outnumbered. Dawn and Kaylon agreed that if we don't continue on, we might not get there at all. So we chose to press on while I was singing, "He is here, Amen..."

Pulling back onto the roadway, we found that the snow is mostly 'slush'. We continued on as did the snow. I thought, many times, of the higher Appalachians which lay ahead of us, where the mountains are 2,000 - 3,000 feet in altitude and the winter storms are severe. The Lord continued to remind me through the words of that chorus that "He is here" with us. So we kept going... And I sang... "He is here, Holy, Holy....."

As we passed Morgantown, we started up into the higher mountains. The weather was much worse here. Huge snow flakes dropping around us. The roads are heavily covered with snow.

We continued on and I drove very carefully. Cars and trucks alike were swiftly passing us. Many of the vehicles were sliding and occasionally we would see a car which had slid off the roadway and into trees or guard rails. As we travelled further, we found vehicles stuck in the snow which was, by this time, getting very deep.

I was somewhat relieved as we passed the Maryland State line because I knew we had only one hundred miles yet to our destination. I wondered, though, how we would make it through the worse part of this trip. I was getting quite weary so I exited at the first rest stop. Again, I asked the kids if we should stay there or keep going. Again, they gave me the same answer, "We must keep going!"

I couldn't quite understand why God would want us to go on in this. But it was not for me to know at that time. I would find out when God was ready to tell me. I knew though that there was a purpose for all this.

We had travelled 300 miles safely in the blizzard, but the fact that I knew the reputation of this area made my driving intense. It was treacherous in the winter. Even so, I had to continue on because I knew that God's will was important. He felt that it was important enough to bring us this far and He was not going to stop now. He would keep us through it all.

Once again we start down the ramp to I-68. The road is far worse than when we got off. We were at the rest stop for only about 10-15 minutes but the snow was now falling so hard that, even with the snowplows and the salt trucks, it kept getting deeper and deeper. About every one hundred yards there was a car or truck wrecked. The thought of us getting through the last ninety miles was looking far more impossible, but I knew ... "He is here, Holy Holy..."

There were many times when we would slide, but I was able, by the grace and power of God, to straighten it out and keep going.

Several times the car slid to the side. It didn't swing around to one side or the other, but directly to the side. There is no way, that I am aware of, to counter such a slide, but the car, seemingly by itself, would come back to the middle of the road. This was definitely by the power of Living God... and I sang, "I will praise His name again..."

During this last hundred miles we had to drive no more than 20 miles per hour. Most of the time we crept along at 15-20 mph.

By the time we reached Frostburg, MD., the storm was at its worst. We watched as vehicles would slide and crash. We passed many trucks which were stopped on the mountain side, unable to reach the top. One mountain in particular had nearly seventy-five vehicles on it's slopes. I watched as a man slid into the median guardrail. A young teenage girl was able to get her car stopped in time, but the semi truck behind her was not that fast. He ran into her little car and pushed her on up the road.

Again, I questioned God, "Why are we here? Why wouldn't You just let us stop at a rest area where we would be safe? Why do You want us out here in all this danger?" We must still wait for the answers.

By the way, God always answers our prayers. There is never and unanswered prayer.

1. He will say yes you can have what you want now;
2. Yes, you can have what you want, but not now. You will wait for it;
3. Yes, you can have it but there are a few stipulations; or
4. No, I don't want you to have it because: "you want it for the wrong reasons"; or "you don't know what you're asking for."

As we listened to our CB Radio we heard that the girl was severely injured. Immediately, I turned my thoughts from our dilemma to that of the young woman. That was the last we heard of her situation, but I know that the Lord had honored my prayers. If there were any way of learning about her, I would like to know how God had helped her.

Throughout this whole ordeal, I was singing, "He is here, Hallelujah, He is here, Amen..." and I could almost feel my faith grow in leaps and bounds. I felt that in God's hands I was invincible and that old serpent, **lucifer, and all his demons wouldn't dare come near me. I began rebuking **satan, his devilish little imps and even the snow. I know that sounds strange, but read on.

As we climbed the grade of, I believe, the next to the last mountain west of Cumberland, MD, I wondered how much I could endure. I know that the Word says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Philippians 4:13." It had to be by the strength of Christ that I was driving for those many hours... without sleep.

Also, The Word says that "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). According to His promise, I was going to make it safely and for His glory. As we topped the ridge, we looked out into what appeared to be another land. There before us were patches of snow on the ground and nothing but water on the road. The three of us literally rejoiced at the sight. I never thought that I would feel so wonderful to know that Cumberland was only a little ways ahead of us.

I asked Dawn and Kaylon if they would like to stop in Cumberland to see my brother Allen and his wife Brenda and maybe their son Brian. Since we needed the rest, and an opportunity to relax from the tensions of the last 335 miles, we all agreed.

You might ask, "Why are they stopping to visit when a storm of that magnitude closing in just behind them with only 65 miles to go?" God does nothing in vain. When God gives me the unction to do something in particular, I will not question it. He knows what He is doing, while I don't know in the slightest.

We drove into Cumberland and to Allen and Brenda's front door. As we sat and talked with them, we discussed the storm and its severity. They could barely believe what we were describing to them. They told us that the weather forecast implied that there would be some snow but not that much.

Then Allen told me that he was planning to travel to Frostburg later that evening. I strongly urged him not to go and told him how that stretch of highway was the worst of our entire trip. He ended up cancelling his trip.

If God had not, by His power, helped us to make it this far and experience what we had, my brother would have gone into those mountains and possibly had an accident and been seriously injured or even killed. The Lord definitely has a mysterious way of working things out.

The remainder of the trip to Hagerstown was very relaxed and calm. Because I'd travelled that 65 mile road between Cumberland and Hagerstown many times, it had become rather boring. But this time it was like driving on a strange road. I noticed things. I was conscious of even the little things along the way and I was very blessed indeed to be there.

After our visit in Hagerstown, we decided that we would watch the national weather forecast (finally). We were informed that the storm was to stay in the northern states and not move more than a few miles into Tennessee. This was fine with us, so we chose to return home through Virginia and Tennessee.

About one o'clock in the morning, we entered Tennessee and stopped at the Tourist Information Center. While we were there the night maintenance man informed us that a woman had an accident just a few miles further down the road. I immediately thought there might be inclement weather but he reassured us that all was OK, and there was no bad weather that he knew of... unless a cow constitutes bad weather.

Huh? A cow? I've heard of "raining cats and dogs" but not "hailing cows." Apparently, a woman had just left the Visitor's Center. Just a few miles south from where we were, it seems she had been driving along, northbound on I-81, and hit a cow. That's right, a COW! A BIG WHITE COW! How could one miss seeing a 1,000 pound white wall!?! How do you tell that to the insurance company with a straight face?

Apparently, the cow wanted to try life in the fast lane. Like usual, life in the fast lane winds up in death... Eternal Death.

Needless to say, we pitied 'Ol Bessie' and proceeded on our way. After driving several miles down the highway, what should we see but a Police Cruiser, complete with an Officer, a tow truck, and of course, 'Ol Bessie'. With the tow truck they were hoisting up a huge white cow! Dawn immediately states that, "They sure are raising the steaks now, huh?"

We rest of the return trip was rather enjoyable. ?!?We would be in the middle of a conversation and someone would always say, "Moooooooo!"