Ministry Micro

Here it is! Jimmy was able to purchase it last Wednesday. We bought it from our friend Luis. He owns the travel business that we rent vehicles from when teams are here. It is a manual transmission, turbo diesel with seat belts for 16, although it could easily hold 30 Guatemalans! It doesn't have power locks or windows, so that is one thing less to break. It is a very common vehicle here, so we should easily be able to find a knowledgeable mechanic, which was our main problem with the automatic Chevy.

$585 extra came in over the $15,000 we asked for, so we are going to put that towards new tires, getting all the fluids changed, and replacing the windshield which is cracked. Anything left over will be used for maintenance. Thank you to everyone who gave towards this need. Again we are overwhelmed! God definitely still has plans for New Horizon!!

Prayer Request: Jimmy is pretty good at driving a stick thanks to Pastor Andy teaching him about 2 years ago, but I'm not. Melissa, Jimmy's mom, is going to take me driving tomorrow to give me a crash course. I haven't driven one since I was on a missions trip in Africa about 9 years ago. The missionary told me I would need to know how and he was right! We will stay in their hotel parking lot until it is safe for all.

Believe it or not, Luis wanted my Blazer. That is a blessing in itself because we were not sure who would want to buy an automatic Chevy here in Petén, that the Guatemala mechanics had slowly destroyed. Even in its current condition letting go of the Blazer was a little sad... silly I know, but still sad. I bought it my senior year in college and drove it off the lot brand new! It was so exciting... and clean!!! I knew then that would be the last time that would happen in my life, so I savored it. There has been a lot of memories created in that Blazer, like living in it for 10 months on deputation!! Several people have accepted Christ inside it too while on visitation, both in the States and here in Petén. All good memories! We took one last photo with it before Jimmy dropped it off. I'm ready to move on to what God has planned with our next vehicle!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: Here microbuses are almost exclusively used for taxis from one town to the next. You stand on the side of the road any time of day and every 30 minutes or so a micro will come by that is headed to your destination. That is how most people get around. In our new micro we constantly have people waving us down trying to get a ride and appear insulted when we don’t stop. As we were entering Santa Rita for the first time since we’ve been back we noticed the mayor on the side of the highway waving us down. Eager to see him, we stopped. He quickly opened the door and hopped in. But when he looked around... it was full of gringos! Then he said, “I’m confused!” We all started laughing! He was excited to see our boys. We weren’t what he was expecting, but he did give us a great greeting!