Cars, Vans, and Ears

Last night as I was lying in bed trying to sleep, I felt like God wanted me to share a story that I didn't blog about. In 2003, Curt's parents gave us their Ford Taurus. It was a great car. When they gave it to us we had one child. Two years later, we had a second child. Fast forward to 2009 and we had three children. The Taurus was trucking along, life was good, but we could not fit one more person in the car. We began praying that God would provide a bigger vehicle. We wanted more space and the ability to have a friend ride with us if need be.

I really began praying last July believing God had something for us. We weren't really shopping around b/c in a way I felt like God was just going to drive the vehicle up to our house one day. So, we continued on in the Taurus, and saved what money we could because we didn't want to have a car payment and be in debt. We planned on selling the taurus to help pay for the new vehicle. Fast forward to December of '09. One day I was driving down to serve pizza at a Christmas party for His Heart ministry. Love this ministry...you can check them out here. Anyway, I was pulling onto Interstate 55 and I clearly heard God say (in my head) that we should give our car to Andre. Andre was a youth that came to this ministry whom I had met briefly in November. He was just a few credits short from graduating, but didn't finish school. His family's home burned and God had orchestrated it that my friend Charla who serves in this ministry had contacted me and lots of people in our area had stepped up to help provide this family with furniture, clothes, money, etc. So, anyway I'm driving along and I thought yes, we should give this car to Andre. The only problem was we didn't have another vehicle. So, I go home that afternoon and tell Curt and Curt thinks it's a great idea.

The next day, Curt had to take his truck in to the shop. His friend that went to pick him up was telling him on the way home that he was about to put his grandmother's van on craigslist. She had passed away recently and they were trying to sell it. It only had 50,000 miles on it. It ended up his mom sold it to us for a price that we had mostly cash for, and the little we had left to pay she just let us pay off whenever we could with no interest. Ok, can you say God's provision. It was so neat. So, now we had a new vehicle and we knew we were suppose to give our car to Andre. I called my friends at the ministry wanting confirmation that this was what we were suppose to do. Honestly, they weren't sure. They said they had some college students that needed a car, but I never could get a peace about it. So, one day we drove down gave the car to Andre and told him that God had specifically told us to do this and that this car wasn't from us, it was from Him. Curt said Andre, every time you drive this car remember God loves you and wanted you to have this. He has plans for you. Curt then prayed over him and we left.

God taught us that day that when He speaks...we don't need to ask the opinion of others, because God didn't tell them, He told us. I talked to my friend the other day and she told me that Andre had just gotten his GED. He drove the car up to the ministry to show them because he was very proud. He is enrolling in a junior college in the fall. We're so thankful that God allowed us to be a small part in Andre's life and pray God's richest blessings on him.