I don’t exactly remember the date, but about two and a half years ago, many of you pitched in and gave me and my family a little more than $7,000 for us to buy a car. My wife and I felt extremely thankful, and quite frankly we didn’t know what to do with the money. Since we both thought that it wasn’t the right time for us to buy a car, we decided to put the money in our savings account and just wait.
Lately, I have noticed that my wife’s car, which is an ’89 Honda Accord, is getting pretty old, and I didn’t feel comfortable anymore about her driving it with our kids inside. So, we decided to buy another used minivan in the price range of $6-7,000.
I began searching for a vehicle by looking at The Houston Chronicle but couldn’t find one. And then, I decided to give ebay a try. I spent several hours spread over several days looking for a minivan. There was one that I liked and placed a bid on, but because I had to go away for a meeting and couldn’t keep my eyes on the bidding activities to the last minute, I lost the bid. I kept looking for some more and found another one in Tampa, Florida, and I won the bid before the China mission trip.
Normally, if you are the winner, you need to make the deposit and pick up the vehicle or have it delivered to you within just a few days, but I couldn’t do that because of the mission trip. I worked out the details with the seller and promised him that I would go over there to pick up the minivan immediately after I came back from China.
Because of the long and tiring 30-hour flight back home from China and the jet lag that one goes through after a trip like this, I dreaded this trip to Florida as I was coming home from the mission trip. However, promise made is promise kept. So, I flew out to Tampa through Southwest Airline this past Tuesday, got there at 2:30PM, finished all the paperwork by 3:30PM and began driving towards Houston in my new used minivan.
It took me 21 hours to get home with a few stops, and I drove a total of 1,050 miles! Some people said I was crazy, and I agree with them. While I was driving, I was asking myself, “Why do I have to live like this?” Doing it this way, however, I think I saved at least about $1,000 in buying the car and after taking out all the airfare, gasoline and food expenses another $500 for personally driving it back home. The money that I saved through this will be put to good use.
By the way, the vehicle that I bought is a 99 Dodge Grand Caravan and has a little more than 70,000 miles on it. I purchased it for $6,555.50. The leftover money, which is about $300 after inspection and registration, will be probably used to check up and fix the car in the near future.
Once again, my family and I would like to thank all of you for being very generous with us and doing your best to take care of us. I would like to share this verse with you:
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6: 9-10)
Your pastor,
Eric
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