Getting Things Ready

[Ed Hurst]

You know that, since last winter, I have felt a strong sense of preparing for things to go crazy. Not a total apocalypse as most people see things, but a very potent shift in the moral realm that will echo in human affairs. It's been weighing on me to do some human preparation in order to suffer less from those echoes. Thus, the effort to get everything in order for carrying on the ministry during any human chaos -- the bicycle, the computers, a better car, etc.

That last item turned into a bit of trouble yesterday. It's a hybrid with lots of electronics, but that's what God has provided. We were headed to the store, and it started making alarms and stopped driving. We pulled off the street and it slammed itself into park even before we stopped. We let it cool down while struggling to get it to go. It kept shifting itself automatically back in park. Eventually, it relented and let us drive far enough to get it to a shop nearby. This morning, we learned the diagnosis, and it's affordable, nothing major -- a module in the shift control is failing.

In my heart I'm convinced it represents yet another item that needed preparation, indicating that God is protecting us.

[davew9804]

Well that's an interesting turn of events but not surprised given the complexity in some of the newer vehicles. Praising the Lord with you that you were able to get to a repair shop and the repair was not cost prohibitive.

My wife's sister has been dealing with the VA for medicine required for her husband who has very low platelet count. She has tried for over a week to get them to send the medicine prescribed by the doctor but one of the nurses keeps stonewalling saying she hasn't got the script from the doctor when in fact the doctor has told her sister he's sent it twice. My wife and I prayed today that the logjam with the VA would be cleared and we got a call from her sister that the medicine should be at their house tomorrow.

God is indeed watching over us.

[Ed Hurst]

Amen, David. VA pharmacy provision has gotten very tricky because they do so little of it in-house any more, contracting out the bulk of the work to companies with little incentive to be accurate or speedy.

[forrealone]

Wow.  The Lord does work mightily in this realm of existence.  We know He does, we acknowledge when He does - but He works in all peoples' lives.  They just don't notice or acknowledge it is He who works.  I am so grateful that we do......

[jaybreak]

Glad that annoyance was out of the way, but I wonder if the car could've failed a little bit more, I don't know, nicely?

[Ed Hurst]

Let me suggest that the timing in itself is a test of faith. We haven't gotten it back yet.

[Ed Hurst]

Well, things have shifted (that’s a pun). On the one hand, I’m still grateful to the Lord for His provision. On the other hand, the full price of the service turned out to be up near the limit of our credit. We are looking at a repair cost of about $3500 to fix the transmission (thus, the pun). In the context of what we can know about the reputation of this particular car model, it’s probably the one thing that was always most likely to fail. Other major components tend to serve far longer without trouble.

This turns into a prayer request that we are able to pay off this debt without too much stress. The only plausible alternative was to end up in hock for the rest of our lives with a new car; they made a strong offer for trade-in. We aren’t inclined to go that route.