Chronicles in the Life of Peter Blank, Part 12

Episode 12: Peter Misses A Train
Peter, escorted by his nursing-qualified bride-to-be, was to go to a distant
town for special tissue x-rays to aid the physicians in the treatment of a
cancer which was invading his body. The journey was to be by car to the
nearest railway station and then by train to the particular town. The X-ray
rooms were on the outskirts of the town and they would need get a 'bus or
taxi from the railway station to their final destination. With a limited
train schedule to work around, you may well imagine their frustration when
their car transport was delayed and they arrived at the station in time to
see only the end of the train snaking away in the distance. A conversation
with the stationmaster confirmed what Peter imagined to be fact -- that the
train they had just missed was the last for many hours. However, to his
surprise, the stationmaster asked them to wait on the platform. Obediently
Peter and Mary waited on the deserted platform while the stationmaster
walked along the tracks and out of sight around a bend in the line. Within
minutes a freight train was slowly rumbling past and mysteriously the
guard's van shuddered to a stop right in front of the bewildered pair. From
along the line the voice of the stationmaster called for them to board the
train before he waved it on, and then he waved to them as the train rumbled
passed him. A puzzled guard in the dirty caboose, embarrassed at Mary's
presence due to the female-nude postered walls, asked how the train happened
to stop for them to board. Their explanation carried little weight as he was
quick to advise us that the train did not go right into the town, but would
pass the passenger train along the journey and arrive sooner but on the town
outskirts at a railway freight siding -- nowhere near a railway station!
Undaunted and convinced of God's leading, Mary and Peter sat on a wooden box
for the rattling journey.
The junket ended in a railway siding and concluded with instructions from
the guard to cautiously cross the many criss-crossed tracks to a small gate,
which would lead to a main road into the town.
Peter and Mary, now close to the town earlier than they had planned, were
already thanking God for His helping hand when they passed through the gate
and saw the X-ray rooms immediately across the road. A train fare saved, a
'bus or taxi fare saved, and then to be early for the appointment! There was
little doubting the providence of God, although the lesson for Peter is not
finished yet.


-- Lionel Hartley, Not Finished Yet -- Chronicles in the Life of Peter Blank
"This serial saga, although novel, is not a novel. It is merely a series of true-life episodes highlighting the extraordinary working of an extraordinary God in a very ordinary life. Each episode contained a lesson for Peter Blank, a lesson we can all learn, from a lesson-book life that is not finished yet."
As first appeared in FreEzine Magazine July 2000 ff