on God's unusual provision

I find it somewhat amusing (not really the right word) that this blog started with car saga, and here we are again in the midst of car saga.  It seems that car troubles are a theme in our ministry.  Let's have a quick recap, shall we?

Goldie, our Ford Focus, collided with a commercial truck during a support-raising trip Elliott was taking in Maryland.  The car was totaled, the truck that sideswiped the car was long gone, and Elliott was (praise the Lord) unscathed.  We were car-less and ready to go to Haiti.  We told God if He didn't provide a car, we would be going to Haiti.


God answered our bold prayers and gave us Sam, a blue Saturn Wagon.  Sam came from the friend-of-a-friend who literally just wanted to give us his car.  He was also a believer (whose name, incidentally, was the inverse of my brother's) and God made it very clear he wanted us to stay and continue in campus ministry.  We named the car Samuel because we dedicated his purposes to the Lord.


Once we found out we were pregnant, we started for looking for a more reliable car (and a car with air conditioning since Sam's air was un-fixable).  After months of praying and no time to look for a new car, a supporter (my father!) gave us his old car: another Ford Focus whom we'll call Red for the sake of this post.  It's the newest vehicle we've ever had and has less than 100,000 miles on it.  We never thought we'd live to see the day! ; )


Well unfortunately for us, apparently 2006 Ford Focuses had bad transmissions.  So our transmission went about four weeks ago to the day.  To add insult to injury, the warranty on the transmission expired two months ago.  So it's been to two shops and still has yet to be worked on.

But I'm not writing this for pity's sake.  I'm writing because of how awesomely God has provided for us.  About 2 1/2 weeks into our newest car being in the shop, my eyes welled up with tears, and I angrily asked God, "Why is this happening?  What sort of good is coming from this mess?" 

God answered, "My provision, Rachel.  My provision."

Last Sunday at Sunday School, I was reflecting on how we had already borrowed six vehicles from six different parties (only two of which we asked for -- the rest were just offered to us here and there), and I wondered how we would get through the next week.  Just then a student from Eastern University who is part of our ministry turned to me and asked, "Rachel, do you guys need my car for the week?"

: )

Can you believe it?

What a mighty God we serve.

-Rachel

P.S. You can still pray about the car and the bill.  It looks like we'll be borrowing this student's car for two weeks.