Model T's destiny

My dad’s perspective continues, in his words…

Just before we were to return to Africa after our furlough in 1926, a couple who owned a restaurant in Chicago gave my dad their own 1925 Model T Ford – one with a spotlight in the center of the front windshield. I always thought this gift came from someone who had quite a bit of money, and generously gave that car. It was not until four or five years ago (Dad wrote this in approximately 1993) that I found out from their daughter that this was definitely not her idea. In fact, she and her brother were exceedingly angry about it. For a whole year thereafter, the family could not afford to buy another car. Instead, the father bought the family a radio to placate the children. As you can see this gift was truly a sacrificial gift.

Missionaries never have surplus funds and the fare on transatlantic passenger boats costs quite a bit more than on slow freighters. It also costs more to ship a car stored down in the hold of a ship than to leave it out on top of the deck. Therefore, we left Brooklyn on the SS West Kidron, a freighter bound for Africa, with the Ford on the outside deck, held down with a few ropes.

A few days out on the Atlantic, we were hit by a tremendous hurricane. The waves pounded against the ship. One moment the nose was pointed up into the sky and the next it was plunging into the sea with tons of water slopping over the decks. The ship would shudder as the propeller came out of the water, and grab again as the rear of the ship came down. I was too young to know, but my parents at times were sure that the ship might sink at any moment.

The fierceness of the storm broke many of the railings off the ship and swept them into the ocean. A storage pantry that the ship’s carpenter had built on the deck was smashed and swept out to sea. There was no reason that the Ford could survive the storm and not be swept overboard. Certainly it was not the cords that were holding it in place.

After the storm was over, my dad took me to the forward deck where we saw several 14 to 18 foot steel bridge I-beams that were 18 inches across. These were twisted and bent by the force of the storm. But the Model T was fine. It was destined for God’s service in Cameroon and Chad. The sacrificial gift had been carefully protected by Heaven’s angels.

I’ve always loved this true story, which Dad told many times during his life. It inspires me with hope and confidence because it reminds me that God is all powerful. And that God has a plan... If the car had washed into the sea, it would be because He allowed it to be washed into the sea. But His will was for the car to make it to Africa. So it did. It’s that simple. Steel beams could twist in the hurricane, but the Model T had a destiny, and it stood unharmed.

I sometimes wonder about my journey... Shouldn’t I be rolling over lovely country roads, receiving admiration from onlookers as I dutifully and beautifully fulfill my destiny? Why, all too often then, does it feel like I’m being tossed about on an ugly ol’ freighter where my destination is not only unclear, it seems likely I may not arrive anywhere at all?

Having faith is both the easiest thing to do and the most difficult. It requires believing past the storm. It requires believing God is big and can do big things.