FaithStoriesOnline.com

Stories of Faith for Inspiration and Proof that God can be Trusted Completely

The following story happened to my wife and I . . .

That evening I learned that God not only had parted the Red Sea, but He could also part a crowd of people.   Nobody had been run over, and I was safe on the other side.  I was so grateful to the Lord.  I just didn’t understand the shocked look on my wife’s face!!

Our day had started in Mexico City.  My wife and I learned about a small town southwest of the city called Taxco, which was famous for its silver artisans.  Since we would be driving to Oaxaca, with Taxco being somewhat on the way, we decided to stop and do some shopping.

After arriving in this quaint little village situated on the side of a mountain, we discovered Taxco was so crowded with tourists and locals that it was difficult to find a place to park.  Eventually, we found a rather unusual location.  It was a square pit about seventy feet deep with one steep single lane to get in and out of the parking-pit.  Other cars were parked down there, so I cautiously drove our van down.

Our van was packed inside and loaded on top.  My wife and I with our three kids were on a three-month road trip in a twenty-year-old VW camper van.  We had so much luggage on top of the van that back in the States at Niagara Falls, I had managed to get our van sandwiched between the ceiling and floor in a parking garage.  We couldn’t budge until I unloaded some folding chairs off the top.  Being so loaded had me pretty concerned about our brakes giving out as I drove us down the steep drive into the parking-pit.

After I got the van parked and secured, we went shopping.  Taxco was a beautiful town with narrow twisting cobblestone streets and homes with white stucco walls and red tiled roofs.  The old colonial town’s main plaza had multiple silver shops in any direction one looked.  There were people everywhere, and the atmosphere was one of gala-enterprise.  We had a great time!  The locals were very friendly and the silver work was excellent and cheap!  We were enjoying ourselves so much that we stayed a little longer than we should have, and it was beginning to get dark.

Surprisingly, as dusk set in, the activity in the plaza increased.  Even more people began to come out after dinner to enjoy the evening.  It was so hard to leave, but we had business in Oaxaca the following day and had to go.  We worked our way through the crowds in the plaza back to our van.  While walking down the steep drive, I didn’t say anything to my wife, but I began having doubts about our van being able to make it back up out of the parking-pit.

After paying the parking attendant, we all piled into the van, and I started the old engine.  Sometimes it took a few tries, but this time the engine turned right over, coughed, belched some blue smoke and then we started up the steep drive.  About a third of the way up, the strain was too much; the engine died, and we rolled backwards down the drive to where I had started.  This time I gave it more gas and hit the drive faster.  That took us about two-thirds of the way up before the engine conked out.  We again rolled back to start.

I had my wife and kids get out to lighten the load, then I revved up the engine and hit the steep drive going as fast as I could.  The van sounded like it was going to blow.  Just as I made it to the top of the drive, I slammed on my brakes; there were too many people in the way, and I knew I couldn’t drive up onto the level street without hitting someone.  Then the van died, and I rolled back down to where my family was standing.

Now, my wife was looking worried.  Our three young children thought it was great fun watching their Poppy drive up and down, up and down.  I told my wife that she would have to go up on the street and stop the people at the top of the drive so I could get out without running anybody down.  By this time it was dark, and the street lights threw an eerie cast of dancing shadows over us and the pit.  Reluctantly, my wife said she would try to stop the crowd, and when it was clear, she would signal me with a wave of her hand.

I prayed, “Lord, somehow please help me get out of this pit without killing anyone.”  It was a simple prayer from the bottom of my heart; then up went my wife with the kids in tow.  I sat at the bottom of the drive revving my engine and waiting.  It seemed like it was taking her forever–then I saw it, her signal.  I hit the gas.  The engine was straining, but I was flying up that drive like a speeding bullet!  With one big bump, I crested the drive and stopped right in the middle of the level street.

Praise the Lord!  I hadn’t run over anybody!  My wife came running over with an awful look on her face and yelled, “Why did you come up!!??  I didn’t signal you!!!”  Stunned, I said in disbelief, “But I saw you signal me!”  Then I noticed standing behind her was a large crowd of people about twenty feet from the van looking at us.  I turned and looked out the opposite window and saw another large crowd of people about twenty feet from the van also staring at us.  There was a completely empty zone, void of people on both sides of the van.

I realized the Lord had just performed a miracle!!  For Moses, God had parted the waters; for us, He had parted the people!  No one was hurt.  I was profoundly amazed.  My wife was relieved.  And the kids wanted to see Poppy do it again!

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” –Exodus 14:21,22  (NIV)

PS: The above story happened to us in 1987.  This is my wife’s comment after editing the story for this blog post:  “Yep!!! Truly amazing to this very day!!  Some things can ONLY be explained by God.”
Copyright © 2010 by William D (Nick) Nichols

The following is a true story in my life and is dedicated to a bright young friend who also has a fear of math . . .

On entering state college, I had two GREAT fears–the fear of math and the fear of learning a foreign language, but my fear of math by far surpassed the other.  In high school, I did terrible in all my math classes.  Solving problems in front of the class on the blackboard was a constant source of embarrassment and humiliation. I had not been raised to think in terms of excelling academically; my father was a hard-working gray iron foundry man, and my mother was a secretary.

After accepting Jesus into my heart, I was convinced the Lord wanted me to go to college.  I attended two colleges before my final and third college.  At the first college I met my wonderful wife; a profound gift from God!  At the second college I met an exceptional brother in the Lord who became a lifelong friend.  But at my third college, I had to face my fears as I entered the sciences.

My major required that I take a quarter of advanced algebra/trigonometry and two quarters of calculus.  That was a terrifying thought to me, but after coming to know Jesus, my confidence was in the Him and not in myself.  Since I had not had math for so long, I was required to take two remedial (refresher) courses in algebra and trigonometry.  As I prayerfully and fearfully approached that first course, I was surprised to discover the algebraic equations I had to solve had become like little puzzles, little games to solve. And to my shock, I started having fun with math!

In both remedial courses, I received an “A,” but as so often happens in a life of faith, I hit a roadblock.  The next math course that counted towards my major was advanced algebra and trigonometry. The problem was that in my last remedial math course, we never got to the part on trigonometry, and 80 percent of this class was focused on advanced trigonometry, and I had also never taken it in high school!  After an incredible struggle of trying to catch up, I ended up with a “D” for the course, but I needed a “C” to go on to calculus for my major.  I prayed, “Lord, what do I do now?? I can’t go on any further with my major!”  The Lord seemed to quietly say to my heart, “Trust me.”

Later I went to the administration building to sign up for my classes for the next quarter.  I didn’t know what to do about my “D” and taking calculus.  The registrar signed me up for my other classes and then pulled out a copy of the students’ grades from the advanced algebra/trigonometry class.  Placing the paper on the table, she ran her finger down through the names, stopping at mine.  I felt sick and embarrassed. She turns to me and says, “Looks like a “C” to me” and entered my name for calculus!

This was back in the days before good copiers, and what she had was a copy of a copy of a copy, each worse than the last. I looked down at the copy and was astonished to see next to my name a crease from one of the copies right through my letter grade.  The “D” really did look like a “C”!  And before I could do anything, she handed me my approved class schedule and started helping the next person!  Well, that quarter I got a “C” in calculus.  In my second quarter of calculus, I got a “B.”  And who knows, had I taken a third quarter, I might have gotten an “A.”  (Chuckle.)

So where did the math lead me after college?  I ended up as an environmental chemist at our main environmental state laboratory for fourteen years.  Lots of math and statistics there.  Later, a friend of my wife asked me if I would teach a Business Math course at a local community college.  I did, and loved it!  After that, I studied and passed all five Amateur Radio licensing exams that involved a lot of electronic circuit and radio transmission calculations for both analog and digital.  And at my last job in our state division of air pollution control, I used a database of jet engine efficiencies from Paris, France, combined with the same mathematical model used by NASA in the space program to calculate our state’s first ever emission inventory for all the aircraft in our state.

Looking back on my life, I see that God has this way of taking our fears and weaknesses and AMAZING us . . . but only if we trust Him . . . and only if we let Him.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.” –Proverbs 3:5-6  (NLT)

Copyright (c) 2010 by William D. (Nick) Nichols

The following is a true story . . .

After parking at the Canadian border office north of Fargo, North Dakota, my new bride of one week and I started digging out our driver’s licenses to show the border guards.   When my new bride turned her head and looked deeply into my eyes and sweetly said, “My purse! My PURSE!!  My purse has my driver’s license, and I must have left it in Wheeling, (West Virginia), at my parents house!!”  So much for sweet words!  Now we were in a panic!  In all the rush to leave on our honeymoon and drive West, she had forgotten her purse.

My classes started the next day at Canadian Bible College in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.  In those days there was no overnight delivery of anything, so it would take days to get her ID.  We were stuck, so I prayed, “Lord I’ll have to leave my new bride here while I drive on to school–Just kidding Lord!  Seriously Lord, we need to get across the border, both of us. Please help us, in Jesus name.”  The moment I quit praying, I felt like I was supposed to take our wedding album into the office with us.

It was not a busy border crossing and on entering the office, we only saw two officers.  I got out my driver‘s license, laid down our wedding album on the counter, and fearfully told the officer we needed to cross the border but we had a problem–my new wife had forgotten her ID.  The other officer asked about the pictures.  The next thing I know we’re all standing there looking at the album–I’m telling them wedding stories; they’re laughing, and the four of us are having a great old time!  When we finished with the pictures, they said we could go on across the border and wished us well with our new married life.  Praise you, Jesus!!

Before leaving school the year before I had made arrangements to rent a cute little basement apartment for the coming school  year.  I even had the landlady’s approval to bring a small pet since I‘m a critter person.  On arriving at the apartment, I introduced my new bride to the landlady and my furry little wedding present–an eleven-inch white, albino ferret.  She thought the ferret, named Goofus, looked adorable!  Much to our surprise and dismay, at the end of our first month in our cute little basement apartment, the landlady threw us out!  I felt really bad that this might give the school a bad name so went to talk to the Dean of Married Students and told him what happened.

The next day he called me in his office and said, “I know about your little pet, but she said it was six feet long!  She was afraid it might climb into her bedroom and eat her alive in the middle of the night!  We have had students renting from her for years and in general she sounded much different than she had in the past, so, don’t worry about it; I think she might be going through menopause.”  Whew! Another Praise the Lord!

We were told it was going to be very difficult to find another apartment with all the local colleges already in session.  Still, we prayed and with a lead from another married couple at the college, right off the bat found another basement apartment at the same price and twice the size!  The downside was it didn’t have any hot water, and the wall closets were so cold from the extended subzero weather, we kept our frozen meat and ice cream in with our jackets and boots.  But the upside was it was another answer to prayer and turned into a great basement apartment that was large enough to entertain friends.  We were very thankful and praised the Lord!

Before we got kicked out of our first apartment, my new bride started looking for a job.  This was crucial because we only had enough money for one month of school and rent.  She had graduated that spring with her Bachelor’s degree, so we thought that would be helpful in her finding a job.  She interviewed for a job as a stenographer at the office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  That’s when we discovered she needed a work permit.  However, we were informed by the Canadian Immigration Office that in order to get a work permit, she would have to show that she had a job promised to her and that it was a job no other Canadian wanted!  What a hurdle; it looked like a total impossibility!

We brought this up as a prayer request at a church we had started attending.  Soon after a lady contacted my wife and said she had a position she was having trouble keeping filled.  She was the Director of Housekeeping at the Regina Inn and needed a housing keeping maid.  The Regina Inn was the premiere hotel in Saskatchewan and had very high standards, which explained the high turnover of maids.  My poor new bride was going from proudly receiving her college degree to cleaning toilets!

The Director of Housekeeping filled out the document we needed, and we took it to the immigration officer.  He was a big, burly rather loud gentleman who said he was in a rush for a lunch meeting but would look at our paperwork.  He sat down, glanced through it, signed it, told us to give it to his assistant, and left.  Next door in the assistant’s office, I handed her the signed paper; she glanced at it and got this weird look on her face.  She said, “I don’t know why he signed this giving you permission to work because this now makes him over quota!”  Nevertheless, she processed the papers and gave my new bride her work permit!!  Our hearts sang with praise, “Thank you, dear Jesus, for this permit we shouldn’t have!”
My new bride came home exhausted from her first day on the job.   It was a humbling experience, and though she was grateful for the job, started praying, “Lord, would it at all be possible to find a better job?”  The second day on the job, she was cleaning a toilet and suddenly puked in the toilet!  The Director of Housekeeping found out about her throwing up in the toilet and asked if she had any other skills, to which my new bride answered that she had been a switchboard operator in college.  The Housekeeping Director made a call, and it turned out there was an opening for a switchboard operator at the front desk!  Incredibly, another Praise the Lord!!!

During my time in college that year, my new bride happily worked the switchboard.  A few months later, she even got to be part of the staff welcoming the Prime Minister of Canada to the Regina Inn, and at another time, to meet George Beverly Shea, the key soloist for the Billy Graham Crusades.   By faith–we moved from a prayer . . . to a puke . . . to God’s blessing.  Praise the Lord!

“I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:12  (NIV)

Copyright © 2010 by William D. (Nick) Nichols