As I come to sit with You this morning, Father, I am still in awe of Your love and providence. I can look at Your Word and see how You orchestrated, from before time even began, our salvation. All the interweaving of people and events to bring about Your divine will. It is amazing! It is awesome! And You did it all for every single one of us – so that we might be reconciled to You!

It is equally amazing and awesome to see Your hand at work not just in the workings and lives of humanity but in my own personal life, as well! What a change You have orchestrated in my life!

Before this past summer was even upon us, a seed was planted. A dear friend and former co-worker stopped by the store and shared that there were going to be several new routes opening up for bus drivers in the school system for which she worked.

Hmmmm…could I do this? Would it be something I would enjoy? After much thought, discussion and prayer, I decided to pursue the opportunity – and my journey began. And it was not a speedy process. I wrote about a lot of my struggles in my “He Saw It All” post on October 15th – but add one more funeral and two root canals into the mix!

So with God’s help and the tenacity only He could give, along with the prayer support of many, I got through training.

Prayer for me really got cranked up the week of my testing: many of my family were praying for me (Mom and Dad fasted and prayed), Beulah – my one church laid hands on me and prayed over me in last week’s service week and members of both churches were lifting me up. The day of my test, I requested prayer from my Facebook family and received 121 responses and 69 comments! I was surely covered!

The day of my test was the first big winter weather advisory of the season. Local schools canceled, my training school had a 2-hour delay. When I texted my trainer she replied back, “Sorry Charlie, you still have to go! Roadmaster (the testing facility) never closes. LOL.”

I prayed tons, too, through the whole ordeal. And, no surprise (!), God was faithful! And because of His faithfulness, I passed my test!

But in the midst of it all, where I would be driving would take an unexpected turn. I was focused on driving for the school district that was training me but when it took me so long to get my training in, a full-time route became questionable instead of guaranteed. No one was to blame – it was just a part of God’s providence. I had been practicing with a bus at our local school’s garage and, in the course of events, their transportation director approached me about driving for them. Initially, I declined, thinking I had a route with my training school but when that came into question, I pursued it.

So…long story short, God brought it all together, so that I will now be working for the school Karen (my wife) has served for 17 years. Karen and I will be on the exact same schedule – delays, snow days and all! It is just a little over a mile from home instead of almost 20 miles from home. It will save me almost 400 miles a week on my truck and almost 2 hours a day in drive time!

A huge reason for pursuing this transition was to make more time for ministry. I will have more time for service preparation and whatever else God leads me into. And, a big thing for me and the people of my churches, I will actually be able to get out and visit them in their homes! Unheard of! Only God knows how this all will impact His kingdom.

So…don’t ever doubt what God can do. Don’t box Him in. He is still in the miracle-working business – I’m living proof!

Nov 18th, 2018, Sun, 6:25 am