"Ebenezer"

     "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I've come..." 

(from the hymn Come Thou Fount of  Every Blessing)

     Have I told you the story of Ebenezer?  Well even if I did,  I haven't said nearly enough, so here's more of the story.
     Ebenezer was a car.  The details of his origin, I never really knew, but the part of his history with our family, I'll always remember.  Only God knows the complete extent of his exploits, so I'll begin his story where we began it in 1971.
     We were stationed at that time in Zaragosa, Spain.  There we met an elderly couple.  They were husband and wife missionaries, who were connected with Pocket Testament League.  They came and spoke at our chapel on Zaragosa Air Force Base.  Their ministry was to travel around Europe, mainly the eastern block countries and distribute bibles.  At that time these countries were occupied by the Soviet Union, so in most of them the bibles had to be smuggled in and distributed undercover.  Their stories were numerous and interesting and the car they drove to complete their mission was a 1970 blue Volvo.
     The minute Ted saw that car he fell in love with it.  He talked about it for days, telling me how it was designed to last for eleven years without any major problems, how they were some of the best cars made in the world and how their classic design would never be out of style, etc. etc.
     After speaking at our base the couple left for eastern Europe.  They returned after a year and stopped by Zaragosa to check in with the Christians there, who had been supporting them.  They told us that they were headed back to the U.S. to retire and they had to sell the car.  They were eager to settle their affairs in Europe and be on their way, so their mission board had priced the car very cheaply.  Ted wanted that car so badly but of course we could never afford a car that new and reliable, so he urged our friend and Chaplin, Bill Mosher to buy it.  After considering it for a couple days, he did.  The happy missionaries collected his money, left the car and took the train back to Madrid.
     The following year, the Moshers rotated back to the states.  They were preparing to get out of the Air Force and go to England as missionaries.
     When we returned to the U.S. in 1973 we went to visit them in Alabama.  They still had the Volvo which Bill intended to drive on deputation as he raised funds to return to the mission field.
     Ted retired from the Air Force in 1975 and we moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to finish college and attend Seminary.  There we found the Moshers preparing to go to England.  Bill was driving every weekend to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama and the Lord only knows where else.  The faithful little bible toting, Volvo was  taking another missionary on his rounds.
     Just before the Moshers left for England they came to Butternut to visit us.  Ted was the pastor of Butternut Bible church by then and was driving back and forth to Grand Rapids every day to finish his education.  At that time the Moshers were selling everything they owned to lighten their load for their trip.  After dinner Bill said to Ted, "I'll sell you that car for $500.00."
     "Ted said, "I'll give you $1500.00 for it."
      Bill said, "I'll take a thousand!"  So we purchased the coveted little Volvo for $1000.00.
     I asked Ted later, "Do you think that car can make a round trip to Grand Rapids every day for very long?  That's 110 miles a day."
     He looked at me and asked, "Do you know where this car has been?"
     "That's my point." I said.
     After a few months we were able to purchase a second car so the kids and I could come home after school and leave Ted with the Volvo, so he could go teach Missionary Aviation at Lowell.  This was a great thing for us but it worried Ted during the winter to have us on the road every day, so to ease his mind he bought each of us a CB radio.  He didn't want me to end up in a ditch somewhere, with no way to call for help. (That was long before cell phones.)  At that time when you operated a CB radio you had to identify yourself with a call sign.  Ted picked the signs.  His was "Ebenezer".  That's when he named the car. He said he looked at that car and thought of the places it had been on this earth to do the Lord's work, and here it was still taking him to do the Lord's work and the words from that old hymn came to his mind, "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I've come...".  It was the description of the life of that old car and the life of it's driver.   What was my handle? you ask.  Well Ted assigned that too.  I was "Ebenezer Squeezer."
      Somewhere along the way the Volvo blew a gasket in its oil line,  It was always expensive to replace any parts because it was a European car, but Ted soon solved the problem without replacing the gasket.  He was given the used oil that was drained from the airplanes at Lowell  daily to recycle through the Volvo.  He brought home a fresh supply of airplane oil every night then he poured it into the car to drive back to Grand Rapids the next morning.  He told me that the car peed a stream of oil all the way from Butternut To Grand Rapids then to Lowell every day and anyone who wanted to track him down would simply have to follow the stream.  He drove it this way for several years.  After we finished college it was time for three of our four children to go, so they inherited the Volvo.
      During that time Joel and Kelly wrecked it on a ski trip and put a couple dings in it.  Then Tim wrecked it at another time.  It was beginning to look pretty beat up when Steve Crouse went out one day and painted a racing stripe from the back all the way to the front.  One of our church members informed us that he was embarrassed for his pastor to be seen in it.  That really hurt Ted's feelings because he knew the car's history and it's faithful service.  When he heard what the man had said, he replied, "Oh well..."
     One Sunday evening after we had spent the afternoon at Diann Harlow's house, Ted drove the Volvo home early and left us girls to finish our movie.  He didn't want to be late for the evening service and had preparations to finish.  The girls and I came home about an hour later with Diann.  The congregation had begun to gather in the church when we got there and Ted wasn't there!  I was immediately concerned.  I found our son and asked him to go look for his dad but before he got out the door one of our young men came running into the church and yelled, "Pastor has been in an accident up the road." Then he quickly added, "He's okay but I think the car is totaled.  Someone is bringing him home."
      Ted came in several minutes later with quite a story.  He said that he had crept home after leaving Diann's house because the snow was blowing across the road and causing white outs.  Just before he got to the church he ran into a big one, so he pulled off the road and  "Bam!" he plowed into the back end of another car parked on the side of the road.  In the next instant the snow cleared enough that he could see in his rear view mirror and what he saw caused him to cry out.  Another car was barreling down on him  Unwilling to become a "car sandwich", he pushed open the door on the passenger's side, so he could dive out into the ditch.  But when he tried to open his seat belt it refused to budge.  He struggled with it for a few seconds to no avail then laid out as flat as he could in front of the seats to brace himself for the crash.  His head stuck out the door a little and in the next nano second of time he felt something scrape it.  It was only after he sat back up and was able to free himself from the seat belt that he realized that the top of his head was bleeding.  He looked around confused, then realized that the car that had been screaming down upon him had at the last second decided to turn into the ditch rather then rear end his car.  As it swerved past on the right side, it scrapped the top of Ted's head and knocked the door off the Volvo.  If Ted had been able to make it out just a couple inches more it would have decapitated him.  Or if he had thrown himself into the ditch he would have been run over.  The neighbor who brought him home said that he found Ted running down the road with his arms in the air praising God!
     The Lord had once again used Ebenezer.  Unfortunately he (the car) had to give his life this time because the next morning we hauled him off to that "great junk yard in the sky"!
     
     
 copyright(c)lauragehrke2014