Greetings to all of you! I can't believe that Christmas is just 1 week away! I know that this is an extremely busy time of year, but I hope that you are able to slow down to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior! Each year I am reminded of what this day represents. How much God loves each and everyone of us so much that He came in the form of a baby so that Jesus would pay the price for our sins. So that we could have forgiveness of our sins, and have a relationship with our heavenly Father. What a precious gift. There is nothing better than that!
Well, a year ago today, I was returning from my 2 week trip in Peru. It is amazing that it has been a year because I still hold those memories close to my heart and feel in some ways like it was just yesterday. I am so thankful for this because it is a constant reminder of what I am planning and working for. It is easy to let the daily things of life here and now to diminsh the vision or maybe cloud things for the future. I know that it is sometimes a challenge to look forward and plan when it seems like things are moving slowly or standing still. However, God has blessed me with amazing demonstrations that HE is working on it, and that HE does have a plan, and that HE is moving! Recently, He showed me this in a great way. I have an old car. It is a 1997 Toyota Tercel with 160,000 miles. I love my little car and have had it my entire adult life. At the end of October, I noticed that I had some fluid leaking from my car. I took it into a mechanic and they told me I needed a multitude of things done to the car which would cost over 1000.00. My car is not even worth that according to all the trade in websites. I had said that if my repairs begin to cost more than the car is worth, then I would begin to look for a new used car. So, I went with a budget in mind because I did not want to finance anything considering that I don't want to incur more debt since I'm planning to leave soon! I shared this with multiple car dealers with the same response of, either "good luck" or "if you take out a small loan you can buy this". Needless to say, I was a little frustrated and discouraged because I was feeling like this was one more financial obstacle for me to go. I was sharing my need with a friend at work, and she mentioned my need to her husband. He then suggested I talk with this man who owns a wholsale car business where he buys and sells used cars. So, I went there with a plan to buy a car. After sharing with this man my budget and my plans for Peru, he told one of his workers to show me some cars. During this time, they ended up seeing my car and asked what was wrong with mine. I shared what I was told by the mechanic and he said, what if we could take a look at it and fix it for less than what you were told by your mechanic? Would you keep the car? I said, well of course!!! So they spent a day looking over my car, checking out all the issues I was told I had and ended up replacing my spark plugs and radiator. Apparently there were MULTIPLE holes in my
radiator that were so bad they said they had no idea how I was driving that car
and fluid was not just pouring out of my car! Of course, I know that God was protecting me! Praise God!
So, after they did the work ,we test drove the car but it still wasn't running right, so they kept it over night, gave me a car to use for FREE, and called me the next day to
tell me my car was ok. They fixed a few more minor things and told me I was
good. So, here is the best part....When I asked how much I owed them, (I didn't
get a quote ahead of time because I was just trusting them since they were
offering to fix my car and not just take my money and buy another car) the owner
said that I did not owe them ANYTHING!!!!! I had paid for the new radiator and that was it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and asked him if he was sure and he said "Yes"! I was just overwhelmed by his generosity that all I could say was Thank you while tears of gratitude were welling up in my eyes. Honestly, this does NOT happen in Chicago...I have never experienced this in my life, except when I realized that I was freed from God's wrath and judgement by the shed blood of Jesus. The bonus of this whole thing is that one of the guys that was helping me asked me if
I could come and talk to his men's group at his church so they could give me
some money towards Peru!!!!! WOW! This whole experience has helped to remind
me that He will supply for all my needs and even surpasses my expectations. The
cherry on top of this awesome event is that I am sharing this with everyone I
know and it is bringing joy to others! Isn't God so amazing? I think so! Have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas....