In the Mountains of Virginia

Sitting down to dinner last night with Bradley at Liberty University, surrounded by his "hall" (guys from his dorm building, along with the girls from their "sister" dorm), God placed in front of us two more MK's for him to meet and start getting to know. I say two more because earlier that day, Bradley had met another one as well. Isn't it great when how God can lay a path or provide new friends before you even get to a place?

When planning this trip to Lynchburg  to help Bradley get settled back into life at college, we were reminded that Wycliffe Associates has a hospitality roster which often has been a source of great blessing and fun for our family. The people on this list open their homes to Wycliffe missionaries who are traveling through the area, giving them a place to stay and often some meals at no cost. We searched for one in the Lynchburg area and, out of many choices, were led to pick the home of Peter and Susan Crabtree.

Here are a few of the things we didn't know about them when we first called them:

- They have a great heart for missionary kids!

the view from the back porch

- They live 14 miles from Liberty University, up in the mountains - it is beautiful here!

- Susan works at Liberty and can be a continuing source of encouragement for Bradley.

the view from the back porch

- They have a chocolate lab named Toblerone (Toby for short) which will make one little girl in our family very happy when we all get to come back.

Yes, that's right, when we all come back. Did I forget to mention that they also have a six bedroom house that is big enough to fit our whole family whenever we want to come visit Bradley?

Our God is so great!

Introducing The Blueberry

As many of you know, we've been praying for many months for a solution to our vehicle problem. We have a van here in the States which seats seven people. The problem is, for the time that Josiah will be with us (which is likely to be several months, at least) we have eight people to transport. So, we were facing the possibility that we would need to drive two cars any time we wanted to go somewhere as a whole family, but we only had one car.

So, we've been praying that God would provide us with either a small, fuel efficient second car or a vehicle  that is big enough to hold all eight of us. And for months, the answer has been, "Wait." Even though we were offered a few vehicles to purchase, we never felt peace about moving forward with any of them.

Then, about a week ago, God moved. Lori's father got an email from a friend of a friend about someone who was selling an eight passenger van (it can actually hold 15, but the back two benches have been taken out, leaving lots of luggage space). We emailed the owners, talked to them a bit on the phone and decided that this was the van for us. We explained our situation to them as we started discussing price and payment options, and they phoned us to say, "We've decided that we just want to give the van to you." That's right; they wanted to GIVE it to us!

The Blueberry

So, on Thursday, August 2, we picked up our new van, drove it to the DMV and got it titled, then loaded it up with all of our belongings and, on Friday morning, drove it north toward Baltimore, where we'll be staying for the year.

Though the picture doesn't show it very well, the van is a light blue, so Lori quickly christened her The Blueberry, because she is big and always full. She got us safely up to Maryland without any trouble, and we are confident that she will serve us well for as long as we need her.

But most importantly, we are so thankful that God provided in such a mighty way exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it and in a way that was such a wonderful blessing for us. We truly serve a mighty and loving God, and we can always rest assured that He knows our needs and will do whatever it takes to make sure all those needs are met. All we have to do is trust Him and wait on His perfect timing; He'll take care of the rest.

And we've got the Blueberry to prove it!