30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 19--A Second Vehicle

We live in a country where the VAST majority of folks use busses, bicycles, and legs to get from point A to point B. To own a car is a luxury. To own two--yikes. . .not even sure what to call that. We were able to make do with one car (our not-so-trusty nor practical Honda Oddysey) for the first two years of our life in Nicaragua. Andrew would bike to school most mornings, and hitch rides home, or would use the caponeras (3-wheeled taxis) to get around. We had to do some creative scheduling, and the many times our van ended up in the shop left us scrambling and reliant on the generosity of awesome neighbors.

We were able to purchase a used vehicle from Christian Reformed World Missions this year, a Toyota Prado, thanks to a special donation. This is everything our van isn't. High clearance, diesel, mechanical, easy to find parts, very bare bones and absolutely perfect for what we needed!

 I now use the van to get to and from school, which is a huge blessing and time saver. I'm able to give another family of co-workers a ride to school most days who do not own a car, and I like being able to stay as long as I need to at school without the pressure of finding a ride home.

Ruth has claimed the Prado as her car. Our van couldn't drive to two of her ministry locations due to the bad roads, so it has been a blessing that Ruth is now able to drive to House of Hope and the dump without bumming rides or worrying about destroying our van!

With the blessing of two cars, we strive to keep them full of people, knowing that nothing really belongs to us anyway; we want to be generous as others have been so generous to us. Here's a picture of my car on the way home from Tesoros de Dios today, filled with a group of around 12 moms, kids, and volunteers.