All right praise the Lord Kathy. -- I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is IN GOD WE TRUST -KC- Ministries -------------- Original message -------------- > 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