God provides!!

Once again God, through his grace, proved his provision and providence to us! As many of you know, for the last couple years we have driven a 1988 Plymouth Voyager minivan that God provided for us when we needed a van because of expecting JohnMark, but could not afford one. Well, we recently began having problems losing engine power. When going 65-70 mph, if we hit a gust of wind or needed to go up a small hill, the engine would lose power. We could go 70->55 in about 2.2 seconds. The only way to get the van to accelerate was to go very easy on the gas pedal. We had one dealer test drive it and tell us that the transmission was going out, and another person told us that the head gasket might be going. Needless to say, these repairs were not only more than we could afford, they were more than the van was worse, even the though the body was in great condition and it only had 141,000 miles.

We started van shopping in earnest, but were having a lot of trouble with financing. We found a couple nice Ford Windstars we liked, but still had trouble financing them. It seemed as if we had found good vehicles, but God was just saying "not this one." We had been warned by some friends to be very cautious of Ford minvans because of transmission troubles. We asked the dealer about it, and he assured us that by 1999 ,we were looking at a 2000, the troubles were totally taken care of and there was nothing to worry about. On Friday we found a place that would finance us with 20% down. On Saturday we found a good looking van at a price we could afford and the dealer said though he could only give us $100 for our van, he would inflate the sale price by $2,000, and then give us $2,100 for our van. We felt sure that on Monday we could talk to the financier and it would be a go.

By the providence of God, on Sunday, Easter Sunday, I was working and decided to look on the internet to see if I could find some consumer reviews of the Windstar. PRAISE THE LORD! He led me to a site that had 123 reviews by current and past owners of 1999 or 2000 Windstars. Almost every one had had problems. Some owners were on their 3rd and 4th transmission before reaching 100,000 miles. There were barely any good reviews. We finally took the hint and realized that God had a reason behind denying us for financing. Amy suggested I browse the inventories of some dealerships in Albert Lea. We originally were not going to buy in Albert Lea because of the 7% sales tax. I found a 1999 Honda Odyssey with all the power features such as power sliding doors, etc. It did not have any pictures or price, but I figured I'd drive by on my way home from work and take a quick look. I got to the lot, and couodn't find it.

On Monday Amy called about it and a few other vans they had in stock. Apparently the reason I couldn't find the Honda was because it had just come in on Friday as a trade, but needed the bumper painted, so had gone to the body shop. We went in and talked to them about financing. We were able to get approved through a local credit union, and bought the van on Monday. They finished painting it on Tuesday and cleaned it up on Wednesday. Keep in mind, because they do not allow customers in the paining areas, we had not yet actually seen the van. We didn't even know what color it was!

We saw the van on Wednesday, took it for a test drive, since the purchase was conditional on actually liking the van, and took it home. It's great, the payments are low enough, and it only has 109,000 miles, which for a Honda is just a little past the crawling stage. The dealership was even willing to give us $1,000 as a trade in for our van. As always, God is good, and provides for his children when we only but trust him.

Whenever we would note something about the Plymouth that we would change when we replaced it, we always remembered that it was the van God gave us and it met our needs in every way at that time.

Those of you who remember Mr. Zak from Pilly days gone by might remember that the Zak-Pak had a small box that they kept momentos of God's provision to them. Well, when we gave the old van to the dealership I must confess I kept a set of keys for our box to remind us of God's provision for us.

Please remember to thank God for his provision in the big and the small.