"IMPOSSIBLE?"

“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23)

You may think I’m crazy (a lot of people DO think that!) but I want to share a plumbing miracle story that has greatly excited me and built my faith today!

Our kitchen faucet set is probably eighteen years old. I remember having it installed in the early ‘90s when we had major problems with the previous one. This kitchen faucet set, like our bathroom one is washerless. That has its good points and its bad points. I’m TERRIBLY unhandy but even I can change washers. Back in the ‘80s I was changing bathroom and kitchen washers several times a year. I was very proud of myself that I could “fix” the drips without calling a plumber. The washerless sets can go 5 years, 10 years, or even far more without dripping, but once they start dripping, you’ve got problems!

In our kitchen we have a portable dishwasher which has to be hooked up to the spigot. I believe the hot water pressure coming through the faucet set is very hard on the whole system. Thus, I was not surprised when in February, our spigot began dripping hot water at about one drip a minute, no matter how tight I could turn the handle off. By mid-April when I left for my sabbatical trip to Missouri, it was dripping one drip every 10 seconds. I had tried turning off the shutoff valve under the sink, but it was rusted in place and I could not move it.

When I got home in mid-May it was dripping one drip a second. By last week, it was just a constant stream. I was getting concerned that we have been going through (well WASTING) many gallons of hot water a day. The dilemma is that although our church has an account with an excellent plumbing company, the church has no money and the Barils have no money. I didn’t want to run up a bill the church could not pay.

Last night at supper, my son Jon asked me how much it would cost to fix the problem. He’d concluded we just had to call a plumber and he was willing to contribute $100. towards the repair. I had decided that today I would just bite the bullet and set up a plumbing repair appointment for sometime next week.

The funny thing is that yesterday the thought had actually occurred to me to “lay hands” on the kitchen sink and pray for a miracle. Well, even for ME that seemed pretty foolish and I didn’t do it. But the thought kept coming to me: what if God miraculously fixed it?! Boy would that be awesome!

This morning, I went downstairs to unhook the dishwasher. I turned off the hot water. No drip. None. And we’ve had a steady stream for 10 days and had dripping for 4 months. No drip. No drip! I turned the hot handle on and off a number of times. Working fine. No drip!

Did God work a miracle? Can God do anything INCLUDING the kitchen sink?!
I hope that cheers you up today, because even with a lot of problems I’m facing, it cheered me up!