windcatcher
New Member
Here's hoping there is some interest here for a segment of our work force who have real spiritual needs and asprirations for Godly counsel and encouragement..... and some who don't know God but whose conscience has been pricked by the Spirit and need an encounter with Jesus Christ as represented through the ministry of a church;
A poster in a major trucker's forum presents an inquiry regarding locations of truck assessible churches who have parking suitable for big rigs for drivers who wish to worship. This presents a real problem as parking lots, whether paved or firm packed soil, must be large enough for entering, exiting, and supporting the weight of a big rig....plus be accessible to a trucking route.
This is a forum to which I've belonged since 2003, when, at the age of 55, I found myself suddenly unemployed after almost 22yrs with the same company.... and in looking for work..... found myself schooling at a local tech school and employed by a large company for 13 months driving a 18 wheeler solo. Truck driving is one of the hardest vocations a person can do. It is physically demanding, socially isolating, spiritually isolating from the normal fellowship with other believers, and the schedule demanded if one is productive enough to earn income beyond the outstanding expenses on the road....does not allow for normal scheduling of sleep, or eating, or other normal activities which most people enjoy in their life.
Temptation is ever present for those who are susceptible; family ties are strained by distance.......but often precious to the one who is out on the road who has no other close and intimate contact: Friendships during my 13 months became distant even though I made phone contact regularly: I was distant: A truck driver friend is easily forgotten due to their absence and ordinary things like engagements, birthdays, deaths, births, baptisms, showers..... are often forgotten in exchanges of information as the driver is distant and unlikely to be able to participate anyway...... and this doesn't mean that friends or family don't care....it is just that the relationship has changed due to distance..... Furthermore, what religious instruction or scriptual edification which is available on the road is often through the radio or subject to the communication over the CB radio which may contain a lot of unnecessary interferance and obscenity while one trucker is trying to communicate to another.
Truck driving is a fearsome job......unless one is working a circuit....which most drivers do not..... most truckers have no idea what their next assignment will be or where it will take them until after they have completed their current trip: there are daily uncertainties regarding weather and road conditions...... and with all the difficulties of blind spots around a truck and difficulty to safely maneuver quickly..... a truck driver knows that in most cases, regardless of who is at fault....he is one major accident away from loss of employment, and possibly loss of lively hood or life ---he knows if 'company safety' or a court rules that an accident was 'preventable' though not charged against him as to cause, he will likely be held accountable and dischargable....and possibly financially accountable though not directly a 'cause' of accident. If he's involved in an accident, chances are the first contact with his company will be a question regarding the condition of the load and any others who were involved......no question regarding how he is.
I know first hand of a driver who left north Al to deliver a load in Tallahassee..... and while on the road had contact with his wife via phone...who wasn't feeling well. She had a heart attack to which she succumbed at the hospital and their daughter notified his company immediately when the ambulance was called.....he was only a couple hundred miles away, in route, ....but company did not notify him until after he completed his run....... He had worked for the company over 20 years..... and his wife was his sweetheart since childhood......He was in his 60's. I met him when making my delivery at the same store....which time was bumped upon my arrivial without explanation from our joint company so he could get in and out and head back for her funeral...... I knew, as my starting route was the same as his.... that he was essentially out of hours according to the Federal regulations, but the company gave him the option of returning in his rig to point of origin.
A poster in a major trucker's forum presents an inquiry regarding locations of truck assessible churches who have parking suitable for big rigs for drivers who wish to worship. This presents a real problem as parking lots, whether paved or firm packed soil, must be large enough for entering, exiting, and supporting the weight of a big rig....plus be accessible to a trucking route.
This is a forum to which I've belonged since 2003, when, at the age of 55, I found myself suddenly unemployed after almost 22yrs with the same company.... and in looking for work..... found myself schooling at a local tech school and employed by a large company for 13 months driving a 18 wheeler solo. Truck driving is one of the hardest vocations a person can do. It is physically demanding, socially isolating, spiritually isolating from the normal fellowship with other believers, and the schedule demanded if one is productive enough to earn income beyond the outstanding expenses on the road....does not allow for normal scheduling of sleep, or eating, or other normal activities which most people enjoy in their life.
Temptation is ever present for those who are susceptible; family ties are strained by distance.......but often precious to the one who is out on the road who has no other close and intimate contact: Friendships during my 13 months became distant even though I made phone contact regularly: I was distant: A truck driver friend is easily forgotten due to their absence and ordinary things like engagements, birthdays, deaths, births, baptisms, showers..... are often forgotten in exchanges of information as the driver is distant and unlikely to be able to participate anyway...... and this doesn't mean that friends or family don't care....it is just that the relationship has changed due to distance..... Furthermore, what religious instruction or scriptual edification which is available on the road is often through the radio or subject to the communication over the CB radio which may contain a lot of unnecessary interferance and obscenity while one trucker is trying to communicate to another.
Truck driving is a fearsome job......unless one is working a circuit....which most drivers do not..... most truckers have no idea what their next assignment will be or where it will take them until after they have completed their current trip: there are daily uncertainties regarding weather and road conditions...... and with all the difficulties of blind spots around a truck and difficulty to safely maneuver quickly..... a truck driver knows that in most cases, regardless of who is at fault....he is one major accident away from loss of employment, and possibly loss of lively hood or life ---he knows if 'company safety' or a court rules that an accident was 'preventable' though not charged against him as to cause, he will likely be held accountable and dischargable....and possibly financially accountable though not directly a 'cause' of accident. If he's involved in an accident, chances are the first contact with his company will be a question regarding the condition of the load and any others who were involved......no question regarding how he is.
I know first hand of a driver who left north Al to deliver a load in Tallahassee..... and while on the road had contact with his wife via phone...who wasn't feeling well. She had a heart attack to which she succumbed at the hospital and their daughter notified his company immediately when the ambulance was called.....he was only a couple hundred miles away, in route, ....but company did not notify him until after he completed his run....... He had worked for the company over 20 years..... and his wife was his sweetheart since childhood......He was in his 60's. I met him when making my delivery at the same store....which time was bumped upon my arrivial without explanation from our joint company so he could get in and out and head back for her funeral...... I knew, as my starting route was the same as his.... that he was essentially out of hours according to the Federal regulations, but the company gave him the option of returning in his rig to point of origin.
