"Jesus take the wheel!"

Well its more like, "Jesus take the BRAKES!"

Friday July 15th I went to an auto repair shop for an oil change and free brake inspection, I could hear and feel my brakes were in serious need of help, I figure that driving through the Colorado mountains did quite a doozie, hence the brake inspection! They told me that my front brakes were 10 miles from being metal on metal, my front rotors were extremely rusted, my back brakes had about 300 miles left and the rear rotors were fine. Beyond my better judgement, having 2.5 years experience of working for an auto repair shop and understand the tricks of the trade, I told them to go ahead and repair the front brakes, replace the rotors and perform a brake fluid flush for just over $400.00... I know, I know, I should have driven around for more estimates but my argument is that this facility is ASE Certified! Don't ask me what that stands for, I just know it is supposed to mean that they take their job serious enough to become certified... So Friday I drove away with new front brakes, new rotors and had a brake fluid flush!

That very Sunday, July 17th I was following Jayne, my internship supervisor, to her house, where we have a group lunch after service on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of the month. It was not long after I pulled out of the church parking lot, headed down the road and as I came to stop light, I applied my brakes, the petal went to the floor and my car continued at full speed towards the light and my supervisor's car in front of me! My brand new front brakes had "GONE-OUT"!!! (it was seriously like from a movie!)

I looked down and knew that I had two choices to make, pull the emergency brake or pop the car into neutral... :-/ Sadly I have never practiced pulling the e-brake and was not confident with knowing how the car would respond. So I popped the car into neutral and was able, by the grace of God alone, to get the car to slow down and come to a complete stop before crashing into my boss's beautiful Nissan 350-Z! I took the opportunity to call Jayne and inform her of the possible life and death situation we were both in... she was more than amazing on the phone! She encouraged me to call the repair shop, since this is Las Vegas most repair shops have Sunday hours, again blessed by God that my particular shop was open on Sundays!! Jayne quickly got behind me, both to avoid the possible collision between and to follow me to the repair shop. We arrived safely to the repair shop, shifting into neutral the every stop light! To my dismay, the gentleman behind the counter had very little sympathy and understanding of why I was upset and shaking from driving across town with NO BRAKES!! Expressing his true Las Vegas mentality, he explained that it was "most likely" an air bubble in the brake line and that it happens to 1 in every 10 customers, he encouraged me that today must be my lucky day since I was the 1 in 10 and that I should run down the local casino and gamble! wow... Welcome to Las Vegas! 

Again, giving ALL glory, honor and praise to God, I was SO blessed that Jayne was right there with me and then able to take me to her house where I was greeted with hugs and love! The end of the brakes story is that supposedly my brake line was SO rusted that it broke and ALL of my brake fluid leaked out... the jury is still out on that one! Also, no one in the entire metropolis of Las Vegas, where there is indeed a Mazda dealership, has a brake line for my car, so on Monday they had to "overnight" the part from Phoenix AZ, all of Tuesday the part was "in route" and it finally arrived Wednesday morning. By 12:30 on Wednesday July 20th I had my car back and left the repair shop, to never return again!!!

To show the magnitude of the work that is happening at Central Christian Church, I want to point out that just before I left the church that Sunday afternoon, when my brakes went out, my team baptized 30 new Christians!!! Coincidence? I think NOT! Praise God!! 

My host family was terrific when I was car-less, they allowed me to use their Smart Car while they were away- it was SO much fun!! Check out the picture:

  

In Him and with LOVE,

Cariann