You want to see a real church?  Read what Kathy wrote and you will see
church at work as it should be.  Go Jesus!

Phil.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Du Bois" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 11:10 AM
Subject: A silver lining of sorts


> Hi Guys,
>         You know that old saying, "every cloud has a silver lining?"
Well,
> I thought that you might like to hear the story of the silver lining
> of our car problems.  It's kind of cool.
>         Our church has begun attempting to connect with kids who have
grown
> up in the foster care system, but have now turned 18 and are being
> turned out, so to speak.  I didn't know very much about this problem
> before this summer.  One of our deacons saw a news story about these
> kids right before a deaconate meeting and he came in and told
> everybody about what he had seen and then asked, "Can't we do
> something?"  So, we've been learning what the need is and what we can
> do in response to his question.
>         You just don't think about this kind of stuff.  Some foster
families
> agree to take care of these kids until they graduate without
> compensation, but lots of kids just get released in to nothing.  They
> have no family to go back too.  They are dependent on whatever social
> agencies that they can find to tteach them how to do finances, obtain
> learners permits and drivers licenses, all those daily living skills
> that we as parents just pass on, a lot of these kids don't have
> because there isn't anyone to teach them.
>         Well, our church always puts on a thanksgiving ffeed the Sunday
> before Thanksgiving.  There's always tons of food so, our first event
> was to invite these kids and their social workers to dine with
> us.  It went pretty well.  We gave them gifts and so forth and I
> think that they had a good time.  As they were leaving, one of the
> social workers mentioned that there was one girl who is living in a,
> kind of homeless shelter for kids, who had no place  to go for
> Thanksgiving.  Greg spoke up right away and said that we could take her.
>         We also had been invited to dinner with an old retired pastor in
the
> area who has been a tremendous support to us, not the former pastor
> of this church, for any who remember my past stories.  Anyway, Greg
> knew that this guy is big hearted and he knew that one more mouth to
> feed would be no problem.  Greg basicly told me,  "We're doing this!"
> So, what could I say.  Of course, it was no problem.
>         Then, our van died again while Greg was delivering mail on
> Monday.  We had just gotten it back from having the transmission
> worked on, for the fourth time in three thousand miles.  The van does
> have 213,000 miles on it, so I suppose it is getting near its
> end.  This time, however, it looks like it may be the coolent
> system.  Anyway, we ended up having the car towed to a mechanic who
> won't be able to look at it, probbly until this next Monday.  Since
> we just bought our first second car, a station wagon, last summer, we
> had hoped that the van could make it through the winter, but facing
> reality, Greg decided to stop at the same dealer again to shop around
> for a replacement van.  This dealer has been really good to us.   His
> mother attends our church, and he, the dealer,  has also on
> occasion.  Unfortunately, Greg didn't get their until near closing time.
>         You need to know that all week, I'd been wondering about the
seating
> arrangement in the station wagon with our extra passenger to attend
> Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted her to be as comfortable with our crew
> as ppossible.   Well, Greg found a van, that is pretty cheap and he
> started home with it to show me.  It began to snow, and I mean snow
> hard.  The dealer is less than ten miles from our house, but it took
> more than a half hour for Greg to get home.  When he arrived at
> our  house, it was like a blizzard.  We all checked over the van, and
> it will do, If we need to buy one.  Greg thinks that it will work
> well for a mail vehicle, which would be its main function.  Anyway, I
> suggested that he turn around and head right back or he'd never make
> it with the weather getting worse and all.  Then, Greg decided to
> call and just ask if they needed the van back that night.  The dealer
> said, "no.  Go ahead and keep it until Friday and give it a real
> test."  So, we did.  We ended up with a nice, spacious van to take
> Jen with our family to Thanksgiving dinner.  Oh, the snow, it cleared
> up about an hour after Greg called.
>         He had already cancelled Thanksgiving Eve services as well,
however
> because of the weather so we had a very nice evening at home doing
> nothing.  What a gift to be thankful for.
>         By the way, just in case you're wondering, Chris was not with us
> yesterday.  He was probably with Nicki, but we don't know.  We
> brought him a plate of thanksgiving dinner, but when we got to his
> room, no one was there.  Greg dropped it off to him this morning.  He
> said "Thanks," but didn't say anything about how he had actually
> spent his day yesterday, so we'll just have to leave it alone and
> trust that he was in the Lord's hands.
>   As far as what we are doing with the car, we still have no
> clue.  Greg is going to see if a loan can be extended to a second
> car.  I wish that we didn't have to go into further debt, but even if
> we get the old car running again, that will take money as well and
> then, there will always be that nagging concern while Greg is
> delivering mail that it will break down again.  Plus, this is the car
> that Matt drives and he isn't an experienced driver like Greg, so he
> could really get stuck somewhere with out much clue of what to
> do.   It has been towed five times since june.  Hurray for tripple A
> ,, but that has been used up for the year as well.  Fortunately, the
> transmission repairs have been under warrantee, but new problems will
> mean more money, so it looks like, either way, we're going to pay
> somebody something.  I just like how God worked things out for
> yesterday and I know he'll do it for the rest of the situation as
> well..  What an awesome God we serve.
> Kathy
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.5/177 - Release Date: 11/21/05
>
>