Episode Transcript
It is all too often said that there are no miracles performed these days. Well I'd like to challenge this idea with my story of how the Lord provided travel for me from Sydney to Brisbane one day. Welcome to miracles in the 21st century.
I'm Dr. John Ashton. Well it wasn't exactly the 21st century, it was the 20th century.
Back in 1973, Christmas I was visiting my future parent in laws and staying at their place with my fiance. And for Christmas at the end of 1973 and at that time, a couple of few days after Christmas, my mother rang who was living in Cairns, rang and asked if I could please come up and help her. She was not very well and if I could come up and just give her a hand for a while.
And so I looked at the amount of money that I have and I had enough money to fly from Brisbane to Cairns but not enough money to fly from Sydney to Cairns. And so I decided that I would hitchhike from Sydney to Brisbane and catch the plane. And so I organised my tickets to fly from Brisbane to Cairns and my future parents in law offered to drive me from Sydney to just north of Newcastle, a distance of about 140 kilometres from where they lived and put me on the outskirts of Newcastle so that on the main highway north which would be a lot easier to get a lift.
And back in those days hitchhiking was quite common. Well I stood on the edge of the road of the main highway there for quite some time. It was New Year's Eve, not a really good time to be hitchhiking and I was praying, praying that I would get a lift.
No one seemed to be stopping. But then this car did stop and the man reached across and opened the passenger door and said where are you going mate? And the way he slurred I thought oh no, this man is drunk. And especially on New Year's Eve, a time when people often drink excessively around this time.
And I thought oh no, should I hop in or not, you know. But I'd been waiting there for more well over an hour and nobody else had stopped. And so I accepted the lift and he was going up to a town called Nabiak, some a couple hundred kilometres north.
And so I thought well that is at least getting me on the way. And as I talked to the man I found that he actually wasn't drunk. He actually had a speech impediment and he was separated from his wife.
And this coming holiday was the opportunity that he had to spend time with his children and he was going to his children. I hadn't been a Christian in that long. I was a new Christian.
And I talked to him about spiritual things, tried to encourage him about faith in God and the blessings of God and spoke to him. And as he stopped then at the end of the journey a couple of hours later, he dropped me off and I. And he shook my hand.
And as I shook my hand I noticed he'd pressed something into my hand. I hopped out of the car and he drove off. And when I opened it up I found that he'd pressed a five dollar note into my hand.
Now I forgot to also mention too that when my parents in law dropped me off at the beginning of this journey, my fiance had accompanied me and had as I'd hopped out of the car she had given me a little envelope. And when I opened that envelope as well, there was $5 in it. So I now had $10 plus I had a couple of dollars of coins in my pocket.
But that was all the money that I had for this journey. And as I stood on the side of the road in Nabiac hitchhiking, no one stopped to pick me up. And it got later and later and later.
And it was now about 11pm and I was getting tired, I was getting desperate. I was still hundreds of kilometres from Brisbane and I wondered how am I ever going to get to Brisbane to catch the plane? And so opposite where I was standing was a hotel and it was open, there were lots of patrons there. And so I went over to the hotel and walked in and walked up to the bar and I thought, well, the next town is Taree and maybe I could go there.
And there's a station there in Taree and maybe I can catch a train now maybe I'll have enough money to actually catch a train. And so I asked at the bar and they said, yes, have a talk to that man over there. And I went over and had a talk to this man.
He said, yeah, sure, I'll give you a lift to Taree. And he said, just go outside and wait. There's an electrician's van there.
So I waited another 15 minutes or so and eventually he came out and hopped in and he and another guy and his son and I was able to get a lift to Taree station. It was now, as I recall, nearly midnight. And so the station master and back in those days the railway stations were manned all the time.
And I went up and I said to him, you know, when's the next train to Brisbane? He said, it'll be arriving in about six minutes. I said, oh, how much is the fare? And he said, the fare from here is $12, which was exactly the money that I had. And so I was able to catch the train to Brisbane.
When I got to Brisbane, I had a few cents left over. And the bus fare, as I recall, to the airport was. And when I asked for a ticket and I just, I said, oh, it's lucky I've only got 50 cents left.
The fellow actually gave me a couple of spare tickets. But I praise the Lord that God provided just the right amount of money that I needed for me and the opportunity to get to Brisbane in time to catch my plane to go up to see my mother. God has so many ways that he can provide for our needs, and I praise the Lord for that.
I'm Dr. John Ashton. Have a great day.
