Kathy,
Praise his holy name!  I am praying for his guidance for you guys.
Virgie Underwood
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathy Du Bois" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 11:28 AM
Subject: Re: vvan update


> Brad,
>         Thanks for trying, but, evidently, by the time Greg gotit to
> the mechanic yesterday, the transmission was the only good thing on
> it.  GRIN!  Greg ended up going back to our friendly used  car  lot
> to try out new vans, well, new to us anyway.  When the mechanic had
> turned on our car, it roared so bad that he said that it just wasn't
> worth it.  Greg took it down the road to a guy who works on junk cars
> and, I guess that we will get about $200 for it; just enough to pay
> the car excise  tax on whatever we get next.  Even the junk dealer
> said that it was in pretty rough shape.
>         We've received a lot of blessings out of this latest
> adventure though.  First of all, the timing of this couldn't have
> been better.  Greg already has his sermon finished because he didn't
> use it last Sunday due to low attendance at church on account of the
> weather.  This means that Greg had a little extra time this week,
> whatever that means in the life of a pastor.  Secondly, Greg will be
> working almost full time at the post office for about four months,
> beginning some time soon because the regular that he subs for is
> having shoulder surgery and will be out of commission for at least
> that long.  It would have been a lot worse if the van had died then
> because Greg wouldn't have  had any time to sspare to shop for
> something else.  The third blessing came this morning.  Greg did find
> something yesterday that he can use, a pretty inexpensive van that
> will do the job, but the credit union that we have our loan on our
> other car with,  wouldn't consider extending the loan to this other
> van because it was too old.  Anyway, out of the blue, and the
> salesman has never seen this happen before, they called back and
> changed there minds.  All Greg and I did through all of this is just
> continue to pray.  We figured that if the Lord didn't want us to have
> that vehicle that he knew things that we didn't.  Anyway, when the
> credit union called back, they also offered a lower interest rate
> than anybody else and the salesman couldn't explain that one
> either.  It's not over yet, but Greg has been using the opportunity
> to really talk a lot about the Lord's blessings and provision to the
> salesman and the guy is just, sort of in awe.  Oh yah, the dealership
> is replacing the ulternater for free as well on this other van before
> Greg picks it up.
>         I don't know what will happen next.  I know that we aren't
> getting a high quality vehicle.  It's a 99 WindStar, I believe, but
> you don't necessarily want a brand new car for doing rural mail work
> anyway.  It won't stay looking new for long, especially on those
> nasty washboard dirt roads.  I guess that we're just at peace about
> the whole thing.
>         Ned, you had mentioned putting in $1,000 for repares.  Well,
> we had already sunk $2,000 for a new transmission last June that
> never did work quite right until the engine blew.  Also, last year,
> it cost us over $700 just to get the van to pass inspection and you
> have to get the car inspected every year so we were facing that
> unknown coming up this spring  as well.  As far as maintinence we've
> always been really good about changing the oil every 3,000 and
> keeping up with brakes and fluids and tires just because a well
> maintained vehicle will last longer anyway.  This one made it to
> 214,000 miles.  I suppose that we could have replaced the engine and
> kept it going, but we just didn't feel like sinking another $3,000
> into it and then wonder when something else would blow.  I suppose
> that if it had been a horse we would have had to shoot it a long time ago.
>         Anyway, thanks for praying.  Just pray that we remain very
> clear about our decision and that if the Lord has something else in
> mind that we will know it before it is too late.  It's all in His hands.
> Kathy
>
>
> At 06:56 PM 1/19/2006, you wrote:
>>Is the rest of the van in good shape? Worth putting in a used engine?
>>Sometimes one can just exhaust the amount of money one wants to put in a
>>vehicle, but having a good transmission and if the rest is OK, perhaps it
>>is worth it. Nonetheless I'll pray for the situation.
>>
>>Brad
>>
>>
>>
>>At 02:20 PM 1/19/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>> >The van is toast!"  Help Lord!  Amen!
>> >Kathy
>>
>>Brad
>>
>>    Work is for people who don't know how to write songs