Van Story

Our van has over 180,000 miles on it now, and hopefully many more to go! Its got some chipped paint and scratches and makes some peculiar sounds now and then, but we thank God for our van often because we have a God-story behind our owning this van! When we found out that Emma Catherine was soon to be a part of our family, we wanted to get a larger vehicle than our car with a normal backseat. We could cram 3 kids in there, but it'd be so much nicer to have a van for travel and for having room to seat the kids' friends and family. We had just completed a class at church called God's Plan for Your Finances that taught the Biblical principles of managing our money, which included having no debt except for your home. Our vehicles were paid off by this time and we knew it would be best if we just kept what we had because we didn't have the funds to pay for a van outright, we didn't want a payment, and it didn't seem likely that we could sell the car for enough money to be able to use for a van purchase. So....hard as it was to not rush out and just get a van, we chose to just make the best of it and keep the car. Well....almost 3 months later, we had a van after all! The kids and I were rear ended and forced into the vehicle in front of us during the process, so the car was crunched on both ends. (We were all fine, just a little rattled is all!) The insurance company said it was totaled and issued us a check for around $3800. We took that check, prayed over it, and asked God to show us the VAN that He had for us to get. Within a couple of days, we had that van. And we still have that van over 4 1/2 years later and are blessed to have it. We just pray it keeps going until we are ready to go overseas, Lord willing!!!