I Can Trust Jesus

I thought y'all might be interested in reading something my Dad wrote about his first week as a truck driver. He has been looking for a job for some time now. I even told him as he started driving last week, that I was getting tired of saying his name everyday. I explained he has been at the top of my prayer list since November 9, 2006. I was just kidding but I was definitely hoping I could put a check in the box on that line. We were really hoping he would enjoy driving the truck and trailer and that the job would work out. It looks like God has another plan for him as this trip was a little crazy. However, maybe it was a good thing too. Sounds like God really helped him get through the week!

How would you like to ride along with me for a few days on the Treaty-owned truck pulling a 35 foot flatbed trailer? OK, here we go. I pulled out of our driveway on Tuesday morning and headed for Lima, Ohio to pick up a 25 ft. long Super Fresh sign to be delivered to Philadelphia, Pa. After a fairly uneventful drive and loading, I headed for Philly. I spent the night in Bedford, Pa. and was on the road byabout 4:30 Wednesday morning. I arrived in the city around rush hour and got into some relatively heavy traffic. My GPS instructed me to exit and turn left. I soon found myself on a narrow street with cars parked on the right side and a steady stream of cars and trucks coming down the steep hill toward me. A delivery truck and I passed with approximately two inches to spare between our mirrors. A few minutes later, I arrived at the new Super Fresh grocery store. After about 4 hours, I was unloaded. About that time, I got a call from the dispatcher wanting to know if Iwould run to Baltimore, pick up a load of air conditioner parts and deliver them to two locations in New York. I accepted and then became aware that the first drop would be in downtown Brooklyn at around 5 in the morning. I tied down my load - not a real easy task for me, as it was my first time - and headed towards I-95, looking for a place to get some sleep before beginning the three and a half hour trip to Brooklyn. I crossed the Verrazanno Straits Bridge after paying the 30 dollar toll, got onto the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE to New Yorkers) and looked for exit 33. When I got off, I was to turn left on McGinness Blvd. There appeared to be a couple of ways to go left and I took the wrong one. I promptly found myself on the wrong street in the middle of a city where you probably wouldn't want to take your family on vacation. I pulled over and jumped out of the truck and ran back to the intersection to see the street sign. I saw where I should have turned, then ran ahead to see if I could make the turn-around at the next intersection. Running back, I noticed all the barred windows and doors of the stores there, and prayed for protection, wanting to both cry and laugh because I was in way over my head. I got turned around and found my way to Greenpoint Ave., turned left and began looking for my destination, 73 West St. I rolled my window down and asked a decent-looking man where itwas. He told me to go to the light and turn left. I did and saw I was one street off. I had turned left one street too quickly. I turned on the next very narrow street to the right and it took me to West St. but too far down from where I was headed and West was a one-way street. I pulled off to the side again by a chicken slaughter house and stopped. Immediately, men came out of the shadows toward the truck. They just walked around me, and I got out and jogged around the corner to the place where I was to deliver. The man there told me to just stay parked where I was and they would get me unloaded soon. I ran back to the truck to see the guys close to the truck, no doubt looking for something to steal. They backed away when they saw me coming. I got in, locked the doors and waited...for about 3 minutes until the Asian man in charge of the chicken-slaughtering operation told me I would have tomove because he had trucks coming in. He was somewhat helpful and he moved his vehicle so I could go to the intersection and turn right. He informed me that even though it said one-way it really wasn't. It turns out he was right. After a rather difficult series of maneuvers, I was able to turn around and come back to be offloaded. After about an hour, I was on my way to my next delivery, north of NYC in Valhalla. The man who had unloaded me had given me quick instructions on how to get there. In a few short minutes, I had once again missed a turn and found myself on the side of abusy street with a sign to my left saying "no trucks allowed". At least, now it was light and I could see the drug transaction taking place and the guy on the sidewalk either dead or stone drunk. It was praying, crying, laughing time again. I finally got moving again and found a gas station where I could get some more instruction on how to get on the BQE again. I could hardly understand the foreign man's directions,but eventually his help led me to the expressway. Here I found myself in NYC rush hour traffic, but at least I knew where I was. I made the delivery in Valhalla without major complications and headed across the George Washington Bridge. The 3 or 4 mile approach to the bridge at around noon took about an hour to travel. I crossed the bridge into New Jersey and haven't looked back since! After a few miles, I relaxed a little and put in the Collingsworth CD and Courtney began singing "I Can Trust Jesus". Have you ever driven when you can hardly see the road because of the tears? I think I could introduce that song for them sometime because the truth of it really sunk in when I heard it that day. I'm probably being a little over dramatic. Most people would probably have had little difficulty with that assignment, but for me it was quite the ordeal. Oh, well, soon I was home with my lovely wife whom I almost lost last December. But, that's a whole different story. Thanks for riding with me for a few days. Dad