Gasoline Miracle - UBM [David Eells]

This happened in 2007. My three children and myself live in Australia and had to travel across the continent for family reasons. I purchased a 4-wheel drive to travel back to Brisbane, Queensland through the northern territory. I had not seen that state before but knew it was rugged country. As it turned out, I need not have bothered with a 4-wheel drive, as I wasn't traveling off-road and the roads were the best in the country. However, it is harsh country that is very sparsely populated where cattle stations and sheep stations are very large to support a family.

After visiting Katherine Gorges and heading south, we came across Three Way Roadhouse that was a petrol and food station with a great number of vehicles lined up for fuel. The map showed there was another stop about 70 kilometers away by the name of Likaparta, so I decided I would get fuel there. As I was driving, I began carefully checking that I did not miss the next petrol station. I was sure by now I had definitely passed the distance where it should have been. I knew I could not have missed it so turning back was still going to leave me short of fuel to get back to Three Way Roadhouse. I thought there could be some other place ahead. Things are not always shown on maps.

The vehicle began to chug and cough and I knew that was the end of the fuel, so I pulled over to the side of the road. I made a sign on paper which read, "PETROL", hoping someone going past might help. After over an hour and only two vehicles going past without slowing, I turned to the children and said, "Okay girls, we are going to have to pray".So I led and they all looked quite earnest in agreement. Then I said, "Okay, now we are going to thank and praise Jesus for hearing us".They did and so did I.

I then turned the key in the ignition. It started. I kept praising and so did the children. We were focusing on Jesus and I was taking it in that the vehicle was responding to the accelerator and we were now traveling as before but with an exhilarated sense of purpose. After a while, I thought to look at the odometer to see how far this miracle was to go. We remained praising Jesus the whole way.

The next Roadhouse where we fueled up and had a nice, warm, home-cooked meal informed us that Likaparta had burned to the ground 17 years before but is still shown on some maps.

Just to double-prove the miracle, a few weeks later, while running around in my home city, I felt run off my feet with lots of things to do, including "put fuel in vehicle".It used a lot more fuel in comparison to my previous economical car. I had just dropped two people on the other side of the city and was going to get petrol on the way home. Just before the Story Bridge, the vehicle chugged and coughed as before. I quickly pulled over onto the median strip in the last possible place before the bridge. It was peek hour traffic in the morning.

I thought I would just test if it would start without prayer. I turned the key. No, it was not going to start. I asked God what He wanted me to do. As I was talking to him, I kept being drawn to a driveway hosing company vehicle over the road. I walked over through the four lanes of traffic to the van. The owner saw me and bounded over to me with a smile like an old friend. I asked him if he had any fuel. He said he did have a small jerry can full and he would love to help. I wanted to pay him but he refused. He was telling me of his son experiencing kidney dialysis. So I made it a point to pray for his son.

If my vehicle had stopped only a few more more feet, I would have cost the city thousands of dollars because of a traffic jam. I think sometimes God opens our eyes to the miracles He does and other times we are not aware of the amount of loving protection he supplies.

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