Do you ever have a great idea and you're sure you won't forget it only to have it fly out of your mind and leave you with a terrible empty feeling that you've lost something of great value? That happens to me way too often!
Lane has taken two sessions(10 weeks for each session) of classes at a school for ministry classes. I had not felt that he should be taking a full load of classes and I can only say that it was the Spirit that led me to that understanding. When he started the first session I told him I believed that he should only take two classes instead of the full four classes. Unfortunately this came down to a difference of temperaments. I knew God had called us to Kansas City, but other than that He wanted us there I couldn't really give the reason we were there or what we were supposed to do. Lane felt that if we were in Kansas City he needed to be busy making use of his time. I did believe that Lane had things to learn from Steve Gray the Pastor of our church, that part I shared with him.
Everything did work out for Lane to take the first session of classes and work two part time jobs. However as the second session grew closer to starting I again encouraged Lane to reconsider his determination to take the full class schedule and to possibly take two classes. He listened to me, but didn't feel the same conviction that this was not the way for him to spend his time in Kansas City. We agreed that we would pray that if the money was not there we would know that he was not to take the full class schedule. Even though we prayed about it and agreed, the money was not there but Lane was still determined and enrolled in the full class schedule again. We went through the second session and Lane did appreciate two of the classes he experienced and felt he had gained new understanding from them.
During this last session of classes I experienced tons of dreams about the classes, the people of the classes and what it was doing in mine and Lane's lives. They were not good dreams and seemed to be showing a division that they were creating in our lives (I'll share some of the dreams later).
In the last few weeks of the class session our only vehicle, our faithful little truck broke down. This was not a small problem, because it was our only means of transportation and the truck needed a new motor! We were left stranded and had to find transportation immediately or get our truck fixed. The truck repairs were going to be over $2,500 and beyond our means. We contacted our assistant pastor and was advised that there was a man in our church that could help us find a replacement vehicle for around $1000. We went for the cheap car instead of the truck repair!
We were so blessed during this time! Some dear family members gave us a cash gift to help us get back on the road and a woman we don't even know generously gifted us with a large amount. Scraping all of our money together we were able to give the church man a nice little sum of money to get us a car. He asked us what we were wanting in a car and we told him we just wanted one that was mechanically sound. At the last minute I asked for air conditioning too, he said "well, you know this is going to be a used car and it probably won't have working air conditioning", I agreed, the mechanical part was more important, I just really don't like going through summer driving with no air conditioning!
The man started watching car ads and put his expertise to listening to the grapevine for a lead for our car. During this time he became very sick but still worked to replace our vehicle. One morning he called us and told us that there was a good chance for a car but he was going to try to meet the guy that evening. Because he was so sick, Lane and I called the guy and went to see the car right away, before Lane had to go to work! When we drove in we saw a nice little car, gold in color and kind of nondescript in style. I had expected a hodge-podge car with mismatched doors and no hubcaps for the amount of money we were going to pay. We did a test drive of the car and voila, we loved it! and guess what, the air conditioner worked!! We are not good car dealers and our toughest line is "so, what's your bottom dollar?" We asked the man what his bottom dollar was and he knocked $50 off and we gave him cash and he gave us the title!
The whole point of that story is that with the money spent to buy the car went the money and any chance of Lane enrolling in the next school's session. But it also ended my bad dreams! and other opportunities have opened for the time we have available now to follow God's leading. My next posting will talk about the new opportunities that have opened! But thank You Lord for our new car and thank You that it has air conditioning! (it has a cool sunroof too!) We've named our new(used) little car "Gracie" because by God's grace, we have a car.
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