About four years ago, a car pulled into the side of our van. The insurance company totalled it. We paid off our loan and decided it would not hurt us to eat "humble pie" for a couple years by driving it around. It rattled and creaked in a fiersome manner, but it still got us where we needed to go. Our goal was to save up enough money so that we could pay cash for a "new to us" van.
The savings were mounting up and the financial experts declared it an opportune time to purchase a new vehicle a year or two ago. We prayed for God's leading and then began searching. We found one that was "perfect". We went home and after a couple days consideration, Joel told me that he felt strongly it was not God's will for us to get a van at that time. We rattled along another six months or so, and again prayed about a new vehicle. The search began again. We found another van and again began to consider it. Again, Joel felt God telling him to wait. So we did.
As many of you know, we had to put in a new septic system two years ago, and while we were having that done decided to go ahead and have the sand point well replaced, due to the fact that if I was doing laundry there was no water available anywhere else in the house.
To make a long story short, the sand point did not work and we had to have a drilled well instead. Needless to say, that cost a little more than we had anticipated. If we had purchased a new vehicle when we thought we should have, we would not have been able to pay for our septic and well. Thankfully we had our "new" van money to help defray some of the cost. We were virtually back to square one.
Within the last six months, our van became quite untrustworthy. We would be driving along and it would die. Believe me, it was a bit nerve racking to try to pull over to the side of the road, restart the van, and continue on our way. Joel handled it much more efficiently than I. He would just put it in neutral, start it, and continue on his merry way.
After many repairs, with continued dying episodes, we knew the van's "time on earth" was running out. Again we began praying first off that the van would not leave us stranded somewhere and secondly that God would provide a van if that was His will. We were convinced that God could "heal" our van and make it last another 10 years if that's what He wanted to do.
We again began looking at vans. Joel had me call our credit union to see about getting pre-approved for a loan and to see how much van we could really afford. That was pretty painless, we were approved with the best rate they had available and we made the decision that we would not want to pay more than $200 a month, which meant that we would need to keep the price around $10,000.00.
One night Joel told me that they had a company van that they rarely used at Specialized. He asked Wayne if he would be interested in selling it. Wayne told him that he had just told his wife that he needed to get rid of that van. Wayne told Joel he would sell it for the "blue book" value. We looked that up online and guess what...it was valued between $10,000.00 and $11,000.00!
We were certain this was what God had planned for us. In the end, we purchased the van for $7,500.00 with payments below what we had anticipated.
It is hard to fathom that the Creator of this vast universe is intimately interested in our welfare, but I'm so thankful that He is and that I have a husband who has learned to listen to His still small voice.
To God be the glory!
1 comment:
Love this story, Mom!
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