My Testimony, pt.1 - 07/27/00 05:07 AM
It wasn't easy, but He did.
I didn't even realize it until 1980, late summer.
I was driving truck for an outfit out of Pontiac Michigan, the name of the company was Fleet Carrier.
They hauled full sized vans for General Motors I started driving for them in the middle of winter of '78-'79.
But the story really starts about 1 ½ years before this.
I was driving for a local distributor of building products in Saginaw, and had almost every weekend off.
My wife and I had gone north to a little town in NE lower peninsula, to visit friends and family.
I had read from the bible a little, but never understood a single thing I had read.
But I remembered something I had heard, about calling on God and He'll hear and answer. I assumed this would be right away.
God doesn't work that way [now I know].
I had been drinking with some of my friends, and wanted to talk. They weren't interested, so I took off to another friends house.
He wasn't home.
In desperation, I started to talk to God [had I known then], and issued a challenge to Him.
I said ' God, if You're real, then don't let me get away. Do whatever it takes to get me.'
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER open a door like that to Him, unless you REALLY mean it.
It started a chain of events that led me down a path I had no idea existed.
I was having trouble making ends meet, and wanted a new job, something that would make it easier for my family.
A friend told me that if I wanted to, I could try to get a job where he was driving, better money and better benefits.
I put him off for a year, struggling along as best I could.
Things started to go a little sour where I was, and my boss was looking at me like it was my fault.
I finally agreed to go along with him [my friend] on one of his runs to see if I'd like it.
I did.
I took the test, passed and started driving for Fleet in Feb. of '79, interstate.
I drove mainly in the great lakes area,Mi., In., Ohio, Wisconsin.
As the summer wore on, we learned that because of the oil embargo that hit in that summer, we were to be laid off.
As the time drew near, we worked as hard as we could, making as much money as we could knowing that we were not going to be called back.
I had moved my family to Tawas City [a little town on Lake Huron] while driving as I didn't want them to be alone in Warren while I was gone so much.
I did something I am not proud of, i took drugs to stay awake so I could drive longer,
I wanted desperately to get a lot of money together so I'd have it better when the lay off came.
I was laid off. Suddenly, I had no identity.
Truck driving wasn't what I did, it was who I was [am].
I was still taking speed to stay awake, and had taken the last one as I was driving home [God takes care of idiots, too]and the last one went down my throat just 20 minutes from home.
I walked in and told my wife that I was laid off, and wouldn't be called back.
I hadn't been home in about 6 weeks, and they were out of everything, in fact, they had just got up from the table and the last meal in the house.
I gave her my checks and told her to pay bills and stock up.
I don't remember to much about the next 2 or 3 days, my wife said I slept through them.
Things went from bad to worse before they got better.
I looked for work, but with almost 2,000,000 drivers [or so it seemed] laid off, it was near impossible.
I answered an ad for drivers in a local paper, but when I got there, they had already had over 500 apps for it, some from drivers with 30 + years experience.
And so it went, for the next 1 ½ years, I tried to find work……. Any work. Nothing.
We had moved into a house in the city limits, it was cheaper and more room [my mother had come to live with us by this time, a whole 'nother story].
One day in the early spring of 80, I found an invitation for a bible study in a local ad paper.
I answered it.
This started the next segment of my life.
By the way, Joan and Linda and the rest that did this, you taught me to leave 'em hangin'.
More later.
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Is what you're living for worth Christ dying for?
Gerry B.
[This message has been edited by Gerry Buck (edited July 26, 2000).]