Angel (to the auto mechanic driving her and her 6 year old granddaughter, Laileigh Rose, from the Holiday Inn in Royse City, Texas to her 1993 GMC G2500 van, “Swan"): "The reason WHY we are in Dallas is because we drove up from Austin to go to the Hollywood Prayer Network meeting Monday night.”
It is now Friday morning. “Swan” had overheated, on Wednesday, a mile before the exit to BUC-EE'S in Royse City. Royse City is a tiny suburb of Dallas directly on I30 headed towards Arkansas.
Angel: (the auto mechanic’s name is Tony; she continues; Lai is seated in the back seat in her brand new booster seat, ordered for the trip. Lai’s pink Cowgirl hat is in Swan. Swan is now repaired. Tony did it.) “We were headed out of Dallas to off-grid land I bought 7 years ago in Arkansas. I wanted Lai to see it. I bought it for her. It’s beautiful forest, big trees. I named it, “Angel Creek.” Lai’s never seen it and I wanted to show it to her. It’s pretty scary to be this far from home with a little child and have your car break down. Thank you SO MUCH for helping us.”
Angel (to Laileigh, sitting in Swan in the driveway of their house, on Monday; the van is packed. Laileigh is in her new booster seat.) “Laileigh, let’s say a prayer.” Angel closes her eyes. “Dear Father, please be with us on our trip. Please watch over us and keep us safe. If anything goes wrong please be with us and keep us safe while you fix it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Note: I am “Angel.” I write about my life. I’ve been documenting my walk with God since the day in 1985 I prayed, “Dear God, if there is something about Christianity that I don’t understand would you please show me?” On Christmas Eve, 1985, that same year, I wrote my very first Contemporary Christian Music song, “Eagle Wings.” After praying that prayer, which would be directly affecting my life for the next 39 years, until THIS day Swan broke down on my “Adventures in Swan” to the Dallas Hollywood Prayer Network Meeting with my precious little granddaughter, I documented God’s answer to me. This is a story for my book, “The Harvest of Chapelgate” which covers the stories God took me through from that prayer in 1985 beginning in 2010 when I had moved back to Texas from Florida. Before that, from 1985 to 2009, I wrote my first book of stories from my life, “Chapelgate, a Spiritual Memoir.”
I stopped writing, just now, because I’m writing on my iPhone and a message from my friend, Mark DeAlessandro, just popped up on my screen. Mark just sent me a song, “The Prayer,” by Libera. I wrote him back and said, “I’m writing Part 2 of my story.” I snapped a couple of screenshots of this and sent it to him. He always seems to know when I’m thinking about him.
Part 1, “The Million,” is about this trip to Dallas to attend the meeting of the Hollywood Prayer Network at Freedom Church last Monday night. That story, Part 1, is about Mark praying with Cary Solomon Co-CEO, Director, Writer, Producer, of Believe Entertainment. Cary and Co-CEO etc., the same, Chuck Konzelman were the guest Speakers. I wrote THAT true story, from my life, from my documented life, yesterday. Last night I sent it to Mark and to Tony, the auto mechanic I’m writing Part 2 about right now.
Tony (to Angel, as he drives her and Laileigh from the Holiday Inn in Royse City, Texas to his auto repair shop where her 30 year old white Conversion van, “Swan,” is now waiting, with a new water pump installed, by him and by his mechanic, Danny.) “You’re welcome. I’m glad I could fix it for you. I try to help people. Sometimes God sends me people and I help them.”
Angel (to Tony; Lai is sitting in the back seat, listening and learning, seeing God in action.) “I actually wondered, to myself, WHY God chose for our van to overheat RIGHT THERE. We had just left Dallas. We had already gone to the Prayer Network meeting and visited with our friend, Mark. We were headed to Arkansas. Then, a MILE BEFORE the exit to BUC-EE'S I had the feeling, “Look at your dashboard gauges.” So, I did. That’s when I noticed my water meter was way to the end of “Hot.” That scared me to death. “NOT NOW!!!” I looked up and the sign said, “Exit right now for BUC-EE'S." I knew I could get water and Coolant there, and park. We’d be safe. So that’s what I did.”
Tony: “Some people, most people, when they get an auto shop, USE it to cheat other people and make money. I don’t do that. I feel like I’ve been told that I’m supposed to help people.”
Angel: “I could feel that when I called you on the phone.” Sitting in the BUC-EE'S parking lot, hundreds of miles from home, with the responsibility of a little, precious, granddaughter, she had just bought the Coolant and Distilled water and poured them into the plastic overflow container under Swan’s hood. This was scary. “Help me, Father,” she had prayed. Fear had welled up in her chest. “Laileigh, prayed with me, Father.” She didn’t want Laileigh to think God didn’t hear and answer prayers. They had prayed for safety but now the van was broken down. Laileigh would remember this. Angel went to Google Maps on her phone, to see what was around them. Maybe there was an auto repair shop close by. There was. Dr. G’s Auto Service. One mile away. She called the number. Tony answered.
Angel: “Hi, my 1993 GMC van has overheated. I’m parked in the BUC-EE'S parking lot. Is there anything you can do to help me?”
Tony: “I’ve left for the day. Just drive it to the shop. Leave the keys under the seat. I’ll look at it in the morning.”
Angel: “Thank you, Father.” A mile away! The pointer on the dash gauge had dropped a tiny bit. Maybe she could make it. The fear and dread bubbled up again. With Laileigh safely buckeled in, and fresh Coolant in the plastic overflow, she braved it. She tensely held her breath, carefully going back into traffic, driving under the overpass, and watching the gauge like an eagle. “Now, just a mile…” She looked carefully for where to turn off, found it, inched past industrial buildings… … found it. Drove in, parked amongst 30 old broken down vehicles, in the only open spot. Turned off Swan. The gauge meter was SO hot. But they had made it.
All their suitcases were in the van. Lai had brought her doll, “Kathryn.” Kathryn had been her mother’s doll, 30 years earlier. Lai had also brought the little rag doll they had named, “Jesus.” They had used that doll to enact the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph riding a donkey to Bethleham when Lai was tiny, tiny. Angel had bounced baby Lai on her lap, like riding a donkey. They had looked for a place to sleep in Bethleham, Lai was Mary, Angel was Joseph, the little baby Jesus doll was baby Jesus, that’s how he’d gotten that name. Lai loved playing that story, “No room in the Inn,” the stable, the manger, the star. Jesus being born.
Laileigh: “We have to take Kathryn and Jesus with us! We can’t leave them in Swan.”
Angel (calling Tony; he tells her there is a Holiday Inn another mile down the road.)
Tony: “They have a good breakfast,” he says.
Note: I’ve stopped again because “Nice!” from Rob Blair, has popped up on my phone, as I was typing, creating this story. After I finished writing “Part 1” yesterday, I put it on my website and sent the link to several of my friends. Rob is a friend I met on the recent “Dinner With Dreamers” cruise. He is involved with our Nashville “Dreamers” who also create television shows and movies. That’s what our group DOES. Media. Cultural movers and shakers. People who believe in God, in prayer. I stop and write him back.
Angel (to Rob Blair) “Thanks Rob! I’m writing Part 2 right now, where our van breaks down. I’m trying to show all the prayers happening. xo”
Back to Swan…
Angel didn’t want to leave Swan. She studies Google Maps. She prays and decides to chance it. The meter has dropped slightly. Very slightly. She holds her breath, sucks in her fear, prays, and drives the overheated van to Holiday Inn. They make it. They park. Safe. She breathes out. “Thanks, God.”
They take Kathryn and baby Jesus and their suitcases and check in. A few minutes later they are safe in a beautiful room and Lai is begging to go check out the swimming pool the lady at the desk told them about. They do. Now, Angel’s thoughts turn to money. How much will it cost? What if she hurt the engine? How much is left on the credit card she paid off for the trip? Meanwhile, Mark has been calling, and texting, like always, non-stop.
Mark (texts and calls to Angel): “Are you guys ok???!!! Here’s a link to my friend, Dave. He has an auto repair shop right by you. (It’s actually 7 miles away, WAY too far to make it.) I can’t come get you. I have to work tonight AND tomorrow night AND in the morning. But call Dave. Tell him you know me. Tell him I know the Mayor.”
Mark is in a men’s church group in Dallas. I’ve been in the car with him before, once, when I went to Albuquerque to one of his Action/Acting Stunt Workshops. He stayed on the phone with his Dallas men's prayer group for three solid hours. At the first Albuquerque Comic Con Action/Acting Workshop I went to, I met his friend and co-stunt teacher, Lane Leavitt. Lane did the stunt with driving the motorcycle up the stairs in “The Terminator 2,” as the T-1000. He’s a governor at the Television Academy. I took Lai to Mark’s stunt workshops in Austin, Oklahoma, and to the Albuquerque Comic Con workshop twice. He has an upcoming one in Nashville, June 22, he invited us to. Mark networks. He knows people. He knows the Mayor of Dallas, or maybe it’s the former Mayor. He's in his men's prayer group. He knows a guy he calls “the General” in the Military. He knows the rancher who raised and sent the red heifers to Israel recently, for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. He tells me to remind Dave, the mechanic, that he knows the Mayor. I tell him, text him, “STOP!!!” He answers, “That’s a small town. People have accountability there.”
Angel (to Mark): “Tony says he’ll come to the Holiday Inn in the morning at 8:30, eat breakfast, then follow us to his auto shop, bring us back, and then he’ll figure out what’s wrong with Swan.” Then she takes Lai swimming.
The next day…
Tony: “The cap on your radiator is brand new. It’s the wrong size. I can’t get it off (but does later and puts a good one on). So I jacked it up and went in from the bottom. I’ve got two guys working on it for you, so we can get it done (he does). I tell him the only thing I know is my air conditioner stopped blowing three weeks ago. I ask if it could be related. He asks how I plan to get home without an air conditioner? “With the windows down,” I say. So on his own, he later even attempts to diagnose and repair the air conditioner for me, only telling me after it’s done, on his own dime.
Note: Tony prayed for me. Mark prayed for me. They both used everything they had to aid me. That’s “prayer.” Before Lai and I left the auto repair shop Tony stood at the rolled down window before we drove away. “Let me pray for you,” he said. He took my hand in his big strong, weary, lifelong auto mechanic's hand, closed his eyes, standing there in his parking lot in the midst of 30 old broken down various vehicles, maybe he uses them for parts, I don’t know, and prayed, “Dear God, please take care of them and get them safely back to Austin. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I had decided not to push my luck to Arkansas. I wanted to go home. This was SO scary.
Angel (to Laileigh): “God doesn’t always answer our prayers by keeping bad things from happening to us. He just walks with us THROUGH the bad things. Let’s go home.”
And we did.
Tony (at some point): “My wife and I watch Christian movies. We’ve been watching all the episodes of "Touched by an Angel,” lately. Just wait till I tell her about THIS!”
Copyright 2024 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved
Written June 8, 2024 at 9:55 am
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