stuff i think

He gives and takes away....

but He gives way more than He takes.



Regular readers of this blog (both of you) will know of the adventures of the mighty turboWagon, the old workhorse Volvo that someone gave us thirteen months ago. Part classy wagon, part tractor, the turboWagon has logged about 7,000 miles this year, adding to the 200,000+ that it already had traveled.



In recent weeks, it has developed what a counselor would refer to as "issues". First, the muffler failed in it's muffling. Then the turbo in it's turboing. It went down hill from there. Anticipating having to get a safety inspection to get it relicensed, I took a long hard look at it over the weekend. Remember those comic books that your parents used to buy you for long car rides? The ones with the caption "Find 10 Things Wrong With This Picture?". Looking under the hood, I was able to play that game.



For starters, I think the head gasket is blown. It uses equal amounts of gas and oil now. A spark plug wire was burned completely off - I literally drove it to the airport and back last week on three cylinders! The air intake hose has a 3 inch hole in it - and a vacuum line has been torn from it and flung with such violence that it reinserted itself in the hose about a foot away from where it was originally connected. The aluminum timing chain cover has a whole torn in it that makes it look as if someone fired a .38 from inside the engine towards the radiator, which, oddly enough, does not leak a drop.



Staring at the car, I started doing some calculations.....Repair + effort + time x ignorance - cash = is this worth fixing? I had to come to the realization that the turboWagon may have hauled it's last plastic bag of groceries from the Walmart Supercenter.



As many of you saw, I just posted some things about a financial need. Obviously, as missionaries, our need goes far beyond wheels, but the car was hanging over my head as I wrote. I would love to talk about the overwhelming response we got, but....well, God didn't work that way. THANK YOU to the person who did contribute!

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God said "I pick better than you."


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I've spent a fair amount of time praying about finances in recent weeks. A few weeks ago, I felt the Lord tell me "I'm going to move you to a cashless system....I'm going to give you goods, not finances." I was not amused. I remember thinking "Uh, I really like to pick what I get!" He heard that....and said "I pick better than you."



So...back to the car....yesterday, I'm relaying this whole story to a good friend via Instant Message. This is not a rich friend. This is a friend who works hard just like the rest of us to take care of his wife and children...he just has a huge heart. Long story short, someone has just given him a car....not a Porsche Boxster, but certainly a good, reliable second car with four doors, a working muffler, and a reliable reputation....and he in turn is giving it to me. I was stunned - still am. He said "Listen, I knew when they gave us the car that we would be giving it to someone. You need a car. It's yours."


We get the car next week. Our needs are provided for. No cash changes hands. So here I sit...completely dependent on God, completely in awe, and completely without a clue about what God is going to do next.