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The ice machine cometh

God wants to answer our very specific prayers. Jerry Brooks story is a wonderful reminder of this.   Jerry is the epitome of a good old boy.  Quick with a smile or a joke, he’s the kind of guy who you just enjoy being around.  When we were just building our missions trainin…
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes
God wants to answer our very specific prayers. Jerry Brooks story is a wonderful reminder of this.
 
Jerry is the epitome of a good old boy.  Quick with a smile or a joke, he’s the kind of guy who you just enjoy being around. 

When we were just building our missions training center called the Gateway on the Mexican border, I called up Jerry.  “I need your help.  Can you see about getting some stuff donated and then trucking it down to the border?”  

Ever ready to help, Jerry said that he would. The donations came in, most notably a large cool room to refrigerate foods.  When he was ready to make the ten hour drive south, he lacked just one thing on his list – an ice machine.  So before he left, he prayed an audacious prayer, “God, you know that the Gateway needs an ice machine, and I couldn’t find one to be donated.  I pray that you would give me one before I get to the border.” 
 
The drive was ordinary, long stretches of scrub brush and arid land occasionally interrupted by a small town along the interstate.  After a number of hours, he stopped to get gas.  He pulled off the road and exited into a small town.   

Pumping the gas was routine enough.  But as he was finishing up, a man called from across the road.  

“Hey, by any chance would you be interested in a used ice machine?  I’m with the volunteer fire department, and we can’t afford the electricity to run it anymore, so I need to give it away.”

After picking his jaw up off the ground, Jerry admitted that, yes, he might be able to find a use for the ice machine, and in fact had enough space on his truck to accommodate it.

So Jerry loaded up the machine into his pickup and arrived at the Gateway with the very thing that he had prayed for.

When I find myself in impossible situations along life’s road and only have time to toss out a desperate prayer for God’s provision, I think of Jerry and his ice machine.  God has an unlimited inventory of stuff He wants to load on our trucks if we’ll just trust Him.  Too often we miss out on the very thing we need to accomplish God’s purposes, if we’ll just stop being self-sufficient and organized enough to allow God to play a role in the plans we’ve developed to further His kingdom.

Comments (10)

  • We do that all the time, don’t we, develop our own plans of how to further His Kingdom. Before I met Jesus, I absolutely ran the world if anyone was interested…self sufficient? I was raised on the theology of self sufficiency! Organized? You bet, organized enough to gain admission to a highly competitive Ivy League College…(pat, pat…)and it takes awhile to lose those habits and default settings, but it is possible…
    I love this story! It is encouraging and reminds me to throw up requests for what I need;crazy as it may seen to my feeble limited understanding. God already knows, of course, but we invite Him to fill those needs; after all, as believers we are working to accomplish HIS purposes, so we ought to be able to invite Him to bless us and others along the way to delight us with HIS answers that will only serve to strengthen and encourage us and others.

  • Seth, I think Jerry left expecting the machine or he would have never left, it is about Faith! Thanks for the words today..Frank

  • I 100% believe this! The moment I put in my notice that this will be my last semester as a teacher so that I could dedicate myself to the Lord’s service, people began stepping forward to offer their help. (The mission purpose has changed-for the better-because of your advice, I thank you, brother!) Commit yourself to Him, and He will provide. There is no doubt of His grace!

  • I have this machine which in picture
    now the ice stay in the bridge and do not be out of it
    what is the problem?
    can you send for me the service manual ?

  • Hi Family & God bless to you all,
    I have also being praying for a ice machine for my Village. I’m from Papua New Guinea (South Pacific), from a small Island called Malai… I’m blessed about this story & thought I send this email to other believers who feel conviceted in their heart to donate a Ice Machine to our Village.

    We pray a hundred fold blessing for each & everyone of you reading this prayer request.

    Praise be to the one, who has no begaining & no ending.

    God bless!

    Matt

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Seth Barnes

I'm motivated to join God in his global reclamation project. He's on the move, setting his sons and daughters free from their places of captivity. And he's partnering with those of us who have been freed to go and free others.



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