The Martin's Blog

Thankful for God’s protection!

Monday, while Jiana and I (Gwen) were going to Wal-Mart, our car broke down. We were in the Wal-Mart parking lot turning right to find a packing space and the car just stopped dead in its tracks! It just simply would not go! It was really strange because it was running fine, just wouldn’t go. I got out to look at the car and saw that both of the front tires were pointing to the center of the car!! Of course it won’t drive like that!!! It turned out that something in the steering column broke plus the inner tie rods.  When the mechanic saw it, he told Tony we were “lucky” that we weren’t driving on the highway or it would have caused a major accident. I can easily imagine Jiana and I could have been killed. We know there was nothing “lucky” about it!!! Instead, God had it all under His control and didn’t allow it to happen until we were in a parking lot and had already come to a full stop!!  And we were in a place in the parking lot where we didn’t block any cars in their parking spaces and all cars and shopping carts could still flow around us!!! We are so very grateful for God’s protective hand in our lives!! Thank you, Jesus!!!!

We’ve had a great time in Florida, visiting Tony’s aunt and seeing the sights! Now we travel on to Alabama and then Texas by the end of the week to visit Tony’s dad and the rest of his family!

My Lost Keys

Tuesday, I lost my keys. Car, house, trash and recycle shed, bike, and all the padlock keys where we are storing out stuff.   It was a rough day. It was the day we found out we couldn’t travel back to the US on August 17th as planned. We were all pretty bummed out about that, especially Jensina & Jiana. Just before the phone call, I had been taking the trash out to our trash & recycle shed with the girls. It was the last time I remembered seeing my keys. Wednesday was when I noticed them missing. The 4 of us tore the whole house apart looking!! I was praying the whole time, “Lord, you know where they are, please show them to us.” But no keys. Tony & I went out to the trash & recycle shed and looked there. I went through the 2 bins I had thrown the trash in – NOT pleasant!! No keys! So frustrating – I knew I hadn’t dropped them! They just had to be in the apartment, but they weren’t. We kept looking in the house and in the trash and recycle bin. No keys. Bedtime – “Lord, where are those keys?” That night both Tony and I dreamed about them. I saw them covered up by something and just sticking out a little. I really felt that GOd was telling me that they were here. (especially since I don’t usually remember what I dream about.) But where??? Thursday morning – back out in the trash and recycle bin and to look in the car – no keys. I gave up looking, but kept praying. Bedtime again, but I can’t sleep. Two hours later, I’m still tossing and turning, I stretch out and feel this strange lump in the bed. What is that??? MY KEYS!!! Sure enough, under the sheets on my bed are my keys. So much had happened, I forgot I had changed the sheets on our beds that day!! “My last prayer that night – “Thank you, Lord, for showing me where my keys were!!!”