“Lord, please help me to get the 4X4 traction engaged or we won’t make it over the pass in this snowstorm.” 

I nervously whispered that prayer as I glanced over my shoulder to check on our one-year-old son strapped snugly in his car seat, while at the same time trying to avoid looking at the deep chasm just beyond the edge of the snow-covered, rutted mountain road. 

It had been sunny in the valley that morning as we packed up the campsite, my husband and his team setting out on their mission trek while Danny and I headed back into the mountains toward home. It didn’t take long for the nice weather to turn into a hailstorm, however, which got worse the closer we inched towards the highest drivable pass in this stretch of the Andes Mountains. A line of stranded market trucks hugging the mountain occupied the safer part of the switchback road, leaving the cliff edge for any driver brave enough to keep going. 

I wanted to get home, and I knew our Toyota could make it through the storm if I could only get the four-wheel drive to engage. When nothing happened, I changed my prayer: “Lord, please engage the 4X4 unless there’s a reason that we shouldn’t attempt to drive over the pass.”

Nothing.  

Finally, one of the stranded truck drivers took my wheel, executed a dangerous three-point turn on the slippery cliff edge, and begged me to take his wife with us as we drove the long way home. As soon as we began driving back down the mountain towards the valley where we had spent the night, I felt a distinct “clunk” in the transmission; the four-wheel drive system had just engaged. I was tempted to turn around and tackle the climb over the 16,453-foot pass, but God had answered a specific prayer by keeping the 4X4 from working until we were driving safely in the other direction. 

I don’t know what might have happened, but I do know what did happen. The truck driver’s wife, Danny and I took the longer route home, arriving in our town eight grueling but safe hours later. God had guided us with His own right hand, hemming us in on the slippery switchback roads, and holding us fast on that highest mountain pass.