Practical matters

Yesterday we brought home our new/used van. It still needs a little work done on it, but it’s ok to drive for now. Many thanks to the people at Renfrew Auto Service for all their hard work getting the van Mexico-ready!

So we still have the old van. We’d like to sell it, but we’re trying to coordinate it all with the acquisition of a trailer, which we also need. We really don’t have enough money even for a used trailer, but we’re hoping that between the money we have and the old van we’ll be able to get something. We’ll see! Meanwhile the tricky thing is just finding the time to look into these things. Thanks to all those who have been praying about the trailer.

Shari, Hannah and Nathanael are just going out to give the new van a cleaning, and to put the car seats in. We praise the Lord for the amazing provision of this van, which Lord willing will see many kms of service in the years ahead. 54 hours to our new home in Mexico, and then the real challenges begin!

Our thermometer said it was 36C (97F) outside, but we were inside, where it was just about as hot. All day we were hauling boxes, sorting, shuffling. In short, packing.

That’s a picture of our living room as it was this afternoon. We took Hannah and Nathanael over to spend the day at their cousin’s house, and Shari and I got down and dirty into what’s going to Mexico and what’s not. There’s still lots to do. Is the glass half empty or half full? Well, I’m afraid we’re not half packed, so maybe it’s a third full. Or a quarter. Or…

But seriously, we did get a lot done. It’s rare we have the kids gone for so long, and I said to Shari it’s like we did 3 months worth of work today, compared to what we would have done if they were here. So thanks to the Wingers for the help! And I’m sure Hannah and Nathanael had a great time. And now things are a little more organized here for a time, so it will be easier to get bits of packing done over the next few days as we have time.

We also made progress today in other ways. I had a good talk with Phil at our mission office, and things are really moving along with some of the organization that needs to be done from that end. So we praise the Lord for each of these small, practical steps toward Mexico!

(Just for the record, it was only 31C (88F) in the city we’re moving to, Cuernavaca, Mexico.)

It’s been a whirlwind around here! Hannah’s birthday party is tomorrow, so we’re all a-flutter getting ready for that. It’s a butterfly party.

Anyway, we have a general idea what kind of a van we’re looking for, for those of you that have been curious. I have the details up on our Get Involved! page. If we could get this specific van donated (and yes, God could indeed do such a thing) then that would save us almost 1/2 of the Outgoing Funds we still need to raise. Of course, we may still need to raise some of that because we need to buy a trailer for it as well.

We’re looking for a 2000-2005 Chevy Astro or GMC Safari passenger van, white, in good condition. Of course, the newer the better. I went to look at a couple this week, and I wrote a couple specifications down on the Get Involved! page. One thing that mystifies us are the child seat anchors. We’d like 4 of them, or more importantly 2 in the middle seat, so that Hannah and Nathanael could both be behind us. Some have 3 anchors, and some have 4, but we’re not sure if we can install a 4th or not. If anyone knows the answer to that one, let us know.

Anyway, if you know of anyone that might have one to donate, we could likely find a way to give them a tax receipt for it as a gift in kind.

In other news, do you know how much our rent is increasing? 9,171 Yen a month! That’s $90 Canadian, US$81.50, MXN$893 – however you slice it, it’s a HUGE increase. We’ve never seen an increase remotely close to this. And that’s not the only increase we’re facing, so we’d appreciate your prayers about that.

The good news is, we got news of some new pledges for our monthly support this week. Praise the Lord! I don’t know if our rent will be much cheaper in Cuernavaca, but it sure would be nice to be paying rent in Mexico instead of Canada. Here’s hoping…

The weekend was over, so it was time to check into van issues. When we were away in Prince Albert, I was concerned about our tires (among other things), so I checked out the spare. The spare tire is hooked up underneath the van at the back, and it looked fine.

Now that we’re home, and Monday had rolled around, I went outside to check the tires again. I needed to make a decision – should we get new tires right away? How many? Which ones? So, I checked them out and … wait a minute …

At first I thought I was just confused. But … no. There was no spare tire! It was gone! Poof! Vanished!

I took it over to a mechanic, and we took another look. It seems likely that the assembly just got rusted and it came right off. But how in the world a whole spare tire fell off the van without us hearing anything or noticing I’ll never know.

Anyway, the good news is that the mechanic happened to have an old spare tire kicking around that fit, so we now once again have a spare. But this time it’s just sitting inside – we’re going to delay fixing the assembly (and replacing any more tires) until we decide what to do about purchasing another van (which we need to do before Mexico anyway). We’re working on that – I hope to visit a dealership or two later this week, then I’ll let you know what we’re planning. Meanwhile, I hope we don’t end with a tire that looks like the one below! But if we do, we’ll be ok, thanks to our spare change.