another reason to love missionaries.

Around here we refer to the missionary spirit. Of course, we're talking about zeal and having the spirit of one who will overcome...but I think it goes far beyond that. All the way to duct tape. Missionaries are used to making do...and they can find a way to do almost anything on no money, no contacts, and no clue.

I had this thought this morning as I drove to church and passed a car I recognized....because years ago, someone gave me that car. It had 175,000 miles on it at the time and someone told them it was worthless, so they gave it to me to sell to raise money to go to Burning Man. I turned it for $1,000 - it was worth twice that, but I sold it to a missionary. Who sold it to another. Who gave it to someone. It's still at IHOP, although I don't know who owns it anymore. This throw away car refuses to go away.

What's exceptionally funny is this has happened to me two other times. The car I saw today was a Mazda. About four years ago someone gave me a Volvo. I loved the car - regrettably, it burst into flames under the hood while driving home from the airport one day. Because it was a Volvo, I didn't really notice. No lack of power, no change in trajectory, and eventually the fire apparently went out, but not until it had burned off a spark plug wire. I didn't discover this until I got home, because as I said, the Volvo kept chugging.

Eventually someone gave me an older Acura Legend and I in turn gave the Volvo away to an IHOPer with a connect at the Volvo dealer. I saw it a while back and it's running great.

I drove the Legend for months until we left for DC where didn't seem practical to have two cars, and gave it to another IHOPer. I think I still see it in the IHOP parking lot from time to time (I'm not sure - I didn't really drive it long enough to make any distinguishing marks on the exterior like the gas cover lid I ripped off the Volvo).

I love missionaries and I love duct tape. This is the place for me.