MIRACLES of Good News TV
Museum Fire Threatens Flagstaff GNTV Station
A wildfire ignited in the mountain range just North of Flagstaff, called the Museum Fire, which threatened the communities in Flagstaff, as well as our local Good News TV station covering that area. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency, stating “This is the absolute top priority for the state of Arizona”, and Emergency Management predicting the fire would overtake the tower site where Good News TV is located that same day. But God intervened powerfully.
In the words of popular Arizona Family 3TV meteorologist, Royal Norman, while showing a time-lapsed video of the first thunderstorm of the season move directly over the fire, dump rain on it and move on, exclaims, “Look at that! Where’s the smoke?", and "a gift from heaven."
Lives Spared by God's Hand of Protection
As we continue to operate and make improvements to this ministry, we had an amazing experience I must briefly share of how the Lord's timing and ways are best. Many years ago I would have simply called this a matter of chance circumstance or good luck. But I now know that this was not luck at all, but rather evidence of a loving God.
The plan was for Leland, a GNTV volunteer, and I to travel together to 3 different locations one day early this last Fall, to install some new video equipment, ending with our final drive up the 9 mile steep switchback road to our broadcast tower at the top of South Mountain. Once there, we would complete the installation and introduce an improved video image to the Phoenix community.
We started the day, as always, with a word of prayer, for God's protection and His wisdom to complete this project in a timely and successful manner. We got everything installed at the first location no problem, and then headed to the intermediate downtown Phoenix location to install at the second of 3 locations. But, we just could not get the equipment to show a video image at this intermediate site. Since we could not get a video image, we knew our trip up the mountain to the third and final site would have been pointless. After trying for hours in frustration to solve the problem, we reluctantly stopped working on the project after midnight, and decided to go home and regroup to finish up the next day.
The very next morning, while simply backing the same truck we had been driving the day before into a parking spot, the steering wheel broke loose in Leland's hands, leaving him with absolutely no steering capability in an instant! Upon inspection of the truck at a mechanic's shop, they found 2 of the 3 bolts that are supposed to secure the steering box missing from the vehicle all together. The third bolt (pictured) had simply snapped off, rendering the vehicle impossible to steer.
As we retraced our steps from the day before, considering the treacherous steep grade, hair-pin turns, and guard rails along the embankments of the road to the top of the mountain, the hair raised on our arms as we recognized the certainty of having avoided a major catastrophe. If we had gotten the video image at the intermediate location, even at a very late hour, we would have been heading up this road to install at the mountain top that night.
If we had lost the steering along this road instead of losing it in the parking lot the very next morning, then you can imagine what could have happened. There is a gate at the base of South Mountain, which is locked by the Rangers at 10:00pm, and the only people with access to this road late at night are those on rare occasions that are on their way to the peak to service a TV station. There would have been nobody on the road all night, our families knew we would be home late so they would not have missed us, and we could not have called for help since there is no cell phone reception.
In hind sight, among various other miracles, it is as if one of God's angels held onto that last steering bolt, to keep it from breaking until there was no danger. Likewise, it was as if the Lord had blinded our eyes to the reality that our video problem, which had held us back from driving up the mountain late that night, was actually very easy to solve. By simply plugging our video signal into a second piece of equipment that we had already installed the night before, our video signal immediately came to life.
Our lives were spared. What a series of miracles, and how humbling it is to sense God's direct protection of us in such a powerful way!
