Praying for a nut

I have never experienced any close to death experience in my life. However, recently a small metal nut put me in this exact situation as it was the only thing that kept my Jeep from falling off of a cliff in a snow storm.

In May I joined a team to travel to Western Tibetan region of China for a volunteer project. In 2010, Yushu was devastated by 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Reconstruction has been very slow partly because Yushu sits at 4000 meters (2.5miles) above sea level.

Our team started off on the 2 day drive on a slow climb from the capital city of Qinghai province towards the Yushu region. On the second day of our drive, our Jeep broke down for the 3rd time and this time we lost a majority of our car’s steering ability when a metal nut holding the steering axel fell off. Luckily I was able to safely pull the Jeep over off of the main road as it was traveling about 40-50mph.


We were in the middle of mountain and at least a 1 hr drive from the last gas station. There was no way we could backtrack on the road to find the missing nut. In such situation praying for nut to fall from the sky seems ridiculous. We used plastic zip-ties to hold the steering axel in place and cruised a few miles down the mountain road and found a small construction site where some trucks were parked. After negotiating our way into the construction site, we miraculously found the one nut fitting the size we desired. The nut was not a perfect fit as it was not designed for the car steering axel as it barely held on.


With a patched up steering system, we kept on driving. Due to the multiple car troubles that day, we hit the highest mountain (4800 meters) on our way to Yushu at about midnight and it was snowing hard at the top of the mountain.
The combination of high altitude and 14 hrs of driving resulted in pounding headache, fever and body ache. As we drove on, all I could think about was the almost fitting metal nut under my Jeep that is giving me the ability to steer. In the snow, the Jeep swayed back and forth. On several occasions, I wasn’t sure if the Jeep was skidding on ice or the nut came lose. I prayed for that metal nut to just hold on for a few more hours so that we could finish our drive.




I often hear people wonder if they are important and if what they do really matters to others. I also sometimes wonder how important my job is and if I am making any difference in this big world. As I survived the most challenging drive of my life, I realized just how important a simple metal nut is to those who dependent on it to do its job.