Blessings From God

We have been incredibly blessed this year, especially recently. For a long time we have been wanting and trying to get a car here in Romania. At home we both had our own cars since the end of high school so coming here and having to share a vehicle that wasn't ours was a big adjustment. We knew that at some point we would want to get a car, but things hadn't been working out well for us until the end of 2011. It was then that God stared the ball rolling by leading my former employer Extol in Zeeland to make a donation to us designated for a car.

When the money came through I started searching online. I found several cars that I liked and went to check them out with my friend and coworker Ghita. The first one I looked at was exactly what I was looking for and was really immaculate, so I decided I didn't need to look any further. We brought it to a test place where they checked everything out, and it scored 95 out of 100 overall. Here you can see it on the dyno getting the engine, transmission, brakes, and suspension checked out.

A week later I went to pick up the car and began a full day of running all over the city and standing in lines like at the place above. We started at 9:30 AM and got done at 7:30 pm. We had to go to at least 5 different locations to get everything checked out and all the documents and taxes paid. It's not nearly as easy as just going to the secretary of state or the DMV and registering the car, but I have heard that here in Romania we were fortunate to get all done in just one day!

Here we are with our new car! It is a 2007 Ford Focus with a turbo diesel engine.

This Focus is designed and made in Germany so it's totally different from the one in the USA. So far we have gotten around 45 miles per gallon! It has great suspension and handling and has lots of torque and power. It is really fun to drive.

It is also very practical and spacious, we can fit lots of luggage in the trunk which is great because we travel around so much and often take others with us.

If you know me really well you will probably get this license plate.

Many others helped out with some of the expenses like the registration, insurance, future maintenance and gas, we are so grateful and want to say thank you so much.

We thank God so much for seeing our need and meeting it above and beyond our expectations. We know that this was his plan because everything just fell into place perfectly and now we have a really nice car that we are already enjoying very much.

God provided something else special for us recently. Rebecca has been teaching about different countries and has wanted something very portable to be able to show presentations at the kids' apartments and school.

Through the generosity of several different people who gave us gifts without us even mentioning the need, God provided us with this iPad2. Rebecca has already been using it to create and show her presentations, the above being about Mexico. Thanks so much!

We would also like to say thanks to everyone who has been praying for us this year. God has honored your prayers and has really been watching over us and providing for us. He has been using many people to bless us over and over and we are so thankful for that! We are overwhelmed by your generosity in support and prayers. God keeps teaching us over and over that when we depend on him he provides in ways we couldn't even imagine.