back by popular demand... following a request from Tamara... this is my car as it looks now. there was a fire in my building in the parking garage and my car was one of the lucky 12 that they pulled out that were toasted. there were over 100 cars in the garage and they said that all of them had at leas smoke damage, alot of them had heat damage, and some others were burned pretty bad. it happened wednesday september 7th. i woke up from a sound sleep at about 5 am. i was like "God... why did you wake me up? i have nothing on my heart to pray and no direction. why am i awake?" then i smelled the smoke. i got up and looked outside and saw a fire truck in front of the other building so i thought "maybe the other building is on fire" because there were no fire alarms going off. after debating going downstairs for 5 or 10 minutes, i heard someone in the hallway yell "fire!" so i threw on some jeans and a tshirt, grabbed my phone, bible, and a water and headed out the door. when i opened up the door, the hallway was full of smoke. so i walked to the stairs at the end of the hall (keep in mind that i live on the 14th floor). i opened the door to the stairs and the stairway was full of smoke. i started down the stairs and then covered up my mouth with my shirt. i make it about half way down and doubled my shirt over because i was still breathing in smoke. the stairs were hard to see because of the poor lighting (they only had lights on every other floor) but i slowly made my way down. when i got down around the first floor, the smoke was so thick and lighting was so poor that i couldn’t see the steps anymore and i couldn’t see the exit door. luckily, i had come down the stairs once before when the elevators weren't working so i had an idea of where the exit was. i had to get about 6 inches away from the door before i could see it. i pushed on the door and coughed and hacked my way outside. the funny thing is, when i was outside, i joked over the phone with asiah that it would be crappy if i found out that the whole time i'm saying "man... that would stink to have your car set on fire" it could have been my car. then 2 days later i find out that my car was one of them. another funny thing is that i just switched my car insurance to PLPD minimum coverage at the beginning of the month. talk about ironic. but i find that i have an amazing amount of peace that everything will work out just fine. peace beyond all understanding. in fact, i find myself comforting other people around me that are freaking out about it. i trust completely that God had a great plan worked out for me already and it’s already in motion. i know He will always take care of me. i don't just say that... i mean it. i know it deep inside. i will always be well taken care of. so praise God for this time of trouble and suffering because i get to see him move. because of my trials, i get to see a little more of how God works and other people around me get to see it too. my troubles can be used to bring God glory! how exciting!
