We have a van!!!!

The Lord just keeps showing up everytime I turn my head. His non-stop provisions keep me amazed, on my knees, and humbled. If you've been following my email updates and/or blogs, you know that not only did we want a van, but we really needede a van. We've asked you to join us in prayer for this and God, of course, has come through again.

Shortly before I left for a visit back in Virginia, a visitor donated a large sum of money...enough to pay for a van! We wanted a good used van, but hadn't had much luck finding one. The day before I left, while riding in the back of the truck coming home from Buena Vista, we passed a couple of vans and I was able to quickly save the numbers into my cell. Apparently one thing led to another and while I was in Virginia we were able to able to purchase a far nicer van at a much better price then we ever imagined. Aint God good!

So, not only are we safer now (plus the windows are tinted), not breathing in so much pollution, and out of the rain (since it's now rainy season until Nov). But this 15 passager diesel van actually gets better gas mileage than the gas run Ford Ranger! How about that! Another nice thing is that we can actually speak and hear each other as we come and go from the communities we serve. This has led to an excellent time of informal English tutoring (for everyone except Manuel...the driver :) I purchased an amazingly good kid's Bible activity book back in Virginia (in a dollar store!) that doesn't have the same old used, tired activities. The original idea was that purhaps we could adapt the ideas into Spanish and use them with our kids. But then once I got here I got the idea to make copies of a few pages and hand them out when we have 1-2 hrs in the van each way. Our Guatemalan staff really seems to like the activity pages and it not only gets them to thinking toward similar creative ideas for our kids programs, but it has them learning some English words as they go. A rare win/win situation!

By the way, the van in the pics above is parked in front of a building which is also an answer to prayer. This is a community building attached to the main catholic church in the area in the communities we serve every Tues. We were needing an indoor space in rainy season and now we have permission to use this building! Yahoo! Thank you God for the way you keep showing up in our every day lives!