When John retired from his hospital clinical operations job, he was eager to get a boat.  He decided on a nicely equipped tri-toon, designed for fishing, water skiing, and pleasure cruising.  John and his wife truly enjoyed a few excursions in 2024, the first year they owned the boat.

In 2025 John had difficulty finding time to use his new boat, due to family commitments, and volunteering for charity care flights as a respiratory therapist.  He felt compelled to volunteer for these trips, which took two or three days, because younger volunteers needed to be home due to jobs and family.

John stores his boat offsite.  Early in the boating season, he discovered squirrels had decided to use his center pontoon to build a nest and store hundreds of nuts.  They also chewed the main wiring harness, which connected the console to the motor, using all 19 wires of the electrical system for nesting material.  It took a few weeks, and several hundred dollars, to get the boat ready to be launched in late July.

The Boat Story

by John Murphy

My July 2025 Boat outing ends in a prayer

My wife and I were excited when we decided to get our boat out.  However, the closest lake to us was over an hour’s drive.  We were anxious to test our new pontoon (tri-toon) boat and see how it pulled people on rafts and other toys.  We were prepared to ski, drift, soak up the sun, and hoped that our granddaughter, “Riley,” and her boyfriend could join us so they could try out our new toys and help us with ski rope lengths.

We were excited when they could join us, and we looked forward to a great time on the water.  We had to meander through a state park to the launch ramp to get on the water.  The sun was warm, the breeze was light, and the water was perfect.

The first toy we tried was a floating island that could hold more people, and then some other floating pads to see what these were like.  After floating we found we needed to adjust the ski ropes and tow ropes.  Riley and her boyfriend took turns helping us make the adjustments needed on them while being pulled behind the boat.  Before long we looked at our watches and realized it was well past 6:00 PM.  It would begin to get dark soon.  We were on the far side of the lake and had a long trip to get back to the launch ramp.  We still had to pack up and get the boat dried off before we started the hour-long journey home.  It was shaping up to be the end of a perfect day.

I backed the boat trailer into the water, and my wife helped get the boat on the trailer nicely.  I clipped the tow strap onto the boat for extra security.  As I got back in the vehicle and started up the steep ramp, I noticed the “Check Engine Oil” and “Engine Oil Low,” lights on the dash.

I mentioned this to my wife and told her that I wasn’t sure if we needed to worry about it until we got on level ground, because the sensor could be reporting an oil level without accounting for the steep incline we were on.  In any case, there was a gas station about two miles away before we got on the Interstate.

I decided to stop at this dinky little gas station and check the engine oil.  It was ½ a quart low.  I purchased some oil to make sure it didn’t overheat.  As I opened the crankcase, the oil cap fell into the engine, and of course it was quite hot.  It was almost impossible to see where it had bounced to.  I could see that it was not on the ground.  I slid down underneath the vehicle but could not see it in the engine.  I knew I needed the oil cap, so I used the flashlight on my phone to try to locate it.  It had settled in the engine compartment, but it was just out of reach for me.  Someone walked by and said, “Do you guys need help?”  He was a slighter young man than I, and his arms and hands were smaller.  I explained what I was trying to do, and he said, “No problem, I’m pretty good at this kind of stuff.”  He lay down on the ground, reached up, and grabbed the oil cap.  We were so elated and thanked him for his help.  He said, “Have a blessed day, and you probably need to check the air in your tire on this trailer back here.  It looks very low.”

After thanking this Good Samaritan for stopping and helping us, we realized he was right.  We needed to do something about a rapidly leaking right rear trailer tire.  The boat motor and trailer weigh 3100 pounds requiring a tandem axle trailer with two wheels on each side.  We could go nowhere with a bad tire, which we realized had a nail in it.  Fortunately, I had a spare tire with me, but I decided to buy a plug for the nail hole in the tire instead of putting on the spare.  I purchased a tire repair kit from inside the gas station.  It was certainly the cheapest quality available anywhere.  The plastic handle broke off in my hand as I tried to plug the hole.  It was completely useless, and the tire lost pressure quickly.  I had to put the spare on.  However, when I tried taking the tire off with the breaker bar and the standard scissors jack from my wife’s vehicle,  these tools were no match for the weight of the boat, trailer and motor.  The weight was too great for the jack, and the breaker bar was too short to put on enough pressure to break loose the lug-nuts.

Time had flown by, and it was getting dark.  There was a feeling of hopelessness, and I started praying out loud (with my wife chiming in). I realized we were more than an hour away from any real help because of how remote we were.  I decided to place a call to our granddaughter’s father and ask him if he could possibly help us by bringing some tools to help me.  He said, “OK, but of course it will take time to get the tools, jacks, and get on the road.”  He was an hour and 20 minutes away from our location.  I told him we were at the back of the gas station near the air pump.

Right after I spoke to him a woman pulled up in a pickup truck at the back of the gas station near us.  I realized she was holding back tears and trying to decide how to approach us.  Finally, she said, “Do you guys need help?”  She was still gently sobbing a little when she said, “Pardon me, but I’m just in a bad spot right now, and I think God told me to stop and see if you needed help.  This has never happened to me before.  I pulled up here, but I am not strong enough to acknowledge hearing a message from God.”

We breathed a sigh of relief and were seriously attentive in hearing her sobering admission that she got a message from God, as we were in so much need of help.  While we were encouraged, we just did not see how she was going to help us. 

I explained that we were waiting for help which would take an hour and a half to get to us. Our jack size and the breaker bar size we had were not suitable for changing the flat tire.  She immediately informed us that she lived across the highway from the gas station, just down a few hundred yards, and had just stopped by to get a pack of cigarettes, which she desperately did not wish to open.  She was fighting a previous addiction to cigarettes.

I think she felt good about the fact that she answered the call she believed came from God to check on us to see if we needed help.  She then mentioned that her husband owned a repair service at her home, and her sons and their friends could give us the necessary equipment to help us.  I jumped in her pickup, and we went to her home and husband’s shop.  It was about 1/8 of a mile away.  On the way I called my son-in-law to cancel his trip down.

The woman talked about her husband being away in Alaska, and that she was having difficulties with her daughter, as well as having to deal with so many other issues.  I told her that we would pray for her, and that God would bless her for coming to our aid.  She felt great about helping us, and felt God was indeed supporting her.  She acknowledged that she was wrestling with the idea of whether to open the cigarette package and leaning towards not opening it.

Her son helped me load a floor jack and a big stout breaker bar with sockets, so that we could change that tire quickly.  He loaded everything in a golf cart, and in just a couple of minutes we were right back at the gas station.  It wasn’t long before the spare tire was in place and we were ready to head home.  I looked up and the woman from down the road was standing behind me.  She said, “I have been talking to God in the truck about my addiction and threw the cigarette pack on the ground.”

We got off the water at 6:30 or 7:00 PM, and when got back home it was after 10:00 PM.

We were in disbelief about how things had changed from a sense of hopelessness and despair to the blessings received.  One thing that struck me was my wife praying out loud down underneath the boat trailer with me when I was wrestling with everything.  We both prayed asking God for help.  My wife’s praying out loud with me was out of character for her.  God seemed to answer everyone’s prayers that day.

My wife suggested we pray for the woman and her daughter, and she wanted to tell the woman we were doing so.  A couple weeks later she went to thank the woman for stopping and listening to God’s voice.  My wife told her we were praying for her and her daughter.  The woman felt so good that we acknowledged the difficulty she was dealing with.  My wife hugged her new spiritual friend.

I have not been able to comprehend in my mind or explain how we were helped so readily and so beautifully.  We think of this story frequently with a grateful heart.  There is no doubt in my mind that God works through us to help those in need.  In this case everyone involved had their faith bolstered, myself, my wife, the lady, my granddaughter’s, and possibly yours in reading the story.

Many Blessings,

John