A fun day today...
We left Minneapolis loaded in the RV and trailer headed east. Drove thru to Chicago today to meet with a few friends and then onto Wakarusa, Indiana for a night.
A rainy day and overall challenging driving due to having a 70' long RV and trailer to get out to Charlotte, NC. (ok so I can already hear the grumbling about the DRIVEN1 GTO not being DRIVEN to the show... let me explain!)
So here goes - why is the GTO not DRIVING to the show? Wow...! let me share a little bit about the last 6-9 months of time.
The Power Tour 2o09 was a short version this year - as my beautiful bride of 10 years was diagnosed with cancer and has had to go in for surgery and treatment. That is the very short answer to one that deserves a very loooooooong one.
To put it simply - life has challenges and every day you wake up, you have the opportunity to choose how you will respond to the day's challenge. If you read in Matthew 6:34, it reads - Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I can attest to that - I'm not worried about tomorrow. There is a large misconception about this verse - and I'll put it this way - I don't WORRY about tomorrow, but I do PLAN for it. If I worry, it will paralyze me. If I plan and something goes wrong, which happens from time to time, then I only deal with today's trouble today. Yesterday is over and done. It's a page in the history book, or Facebook for us modern types.
Just today miracles have happened. Lives are being changed and there much to be thankful for.
So let's jump back to the GTO -
Right now it's missing 1 rear shock, the rear axle leaks and is noisy, and there are new holes and dents in the floorpan. The battery was even dead flat last night when I went to pull it out of the garage into the trailer.
So the point here? I thought DRIVEN1 was about transformation! I thought that GTO was all new and perfect and that it would never have a problem again being that's it's reborn!
{{insert laughter}}
Life is really about what Matthew 6:34 talks about again... I can be a born-again Christian, and still have challenges and struggles in life. Just like the DRIVEN1 GTO. Now ask me - what do I plan to do about it and why did all the "bad" things happen? They are all opportunities as I see it.
So one major problem we had was the vibration when driving the car at speeds above 75-80mph. When I took it down the 1/4 mile dragstrip - it would have a pretty impressive vibration once I passed 95mph. The whole car would pulsate with a rythmic vibration. I came to find out that the driveshaft was one of the major culprits. I took the car into have the shaft balanced and check everything over. When the shop was out test driving the car at about 75mph, the driveshaft snapped in half - with a loud BANG and it took out the exhaust system, put holes in the floor and dented the fuel tank.
The driveshaft failure was a week after I had a transmission failure leaving the hospital after visiting my wife... I was going north on 169 and I simply lost all gears other than Park and Neutral. I was able to coast up to an exit ramp and while I was under the dash checking the electrical wiring on the car to see if it was a hardware or electrical failure a fellow hot-rodder pulled up and offered to help. He was a member of the local Chevelle club. We got the car pushed across the street into a safe spot in the school parking lot and I got AAA to send a flatbed towtruck. After the trans was fixed (due to a pump shattering...) they were test driving it and the driveshaft exploded...
Think if that driveshaft had given out with my family in the car or if I were going 100mph+ on a dragstrip? God was watching out for me and the failure happened in the hands of a competent shop. TSI of Brooklyn Park - and a big thanks to Chris for helping me out as much as he has in getting the car up and running!!
Another problem that TSI found and fixed was the steering rack mounting bracket was failing -all the welds in the bracket were coming apart. They took it off and specially reinforced the entire bracket.
So to keep this post from turning into a book, let's just close tonight by saying that the car still needs a few things in order to be worthy of putting 2500 miles on it. We are taking the car as-is to show at two shows this week. The first one is the WFX show which is a church specific A/V, design and worship tradeshow. DRIVEN1 was given a 20x20' booth on the show floor to show the car and talk about the ministry vision and goals we have set. DRIVEN1 is a ministry that reaches out to the youth and young at heart with the love of God. Broken or not - God loves you and wants to fix you up.
The GTO needs some love and fixing, but we are not going to wait until it's perfect to get out in front of people. If I were to wait until I was perfect to do anything, nothing would ever get done! I need to move forward and press on with the vision and goals set before me. All the while giving God the glory for everything.
Be blessed and keep following for the rest of the story! This is going to be an ACTION filled week!
No comments:
Post a Comment