Community Relations

Ay yi yi! What an up and down week it has been!

Last Thursday, I forgot my children at school.

Yep.

Just forgot to pick them up on the second to last week of school.

Brilliant. I'm an awesome mom.

In my defense, the family that usually drives carpool that day was on vacation, and I forgot. My schedule is such that I usually teach lessons at the house until the kids come home, which is what I was doing when the school secretary called 45 minutes after school had let out. Of course, this other family had been gone for over a week, I should have remembered. It's a weak excuse.

Luckily, my kids have come to accept that sometimes Mom forgets stuff, and they don't hold it against me anymore. The first several times it happened, sure. But not anymore.

Right?

Anyway, Matt had come home to take Maia to ballet, and I had to send him over to pick up both kids with ballet clothes in tow. So, I was surprised when he came in the door before ballet started. He said the Check Engine light in his car had come on and there was shuddering and jerking involved.

That's not good.

So he drove my car to take Maia to dance, and later we had Small Group and kind of needed both cars because I had a meeting elsewhere that night after our group met. So he got in his car, thinking maybe he could nurse it there and back.

Um... no.

White smoke billowing out of your tailpipe is generally a bad sign. LOTS of white smoke. So he turned around and came back within 3 blocks of the house.

Friday morning, we called AAA and had it towed to the place that usually does our oil changes. Mostly a quick lube place, but they do basic mechanic stuff too. Later that afternoon, I get the dreaded news: it's the head gasket. Could be blown, could be cracked. Could range in price anywhere from $1800- $3000 if the have to rebuild the engine.

Our car is a 2001 Aztek. Yeah, he's a beauty. His name is Ike. Here's a picture of him the day we bought him (so shiny!):


And here it is, now that it's Matt's car (6 years later): Note the bicycle-heavy additions of roof rack and multiple stickers and decals.


Yeah, I know Azteks are bulky & strange looking- or you COULD say they have "character!" :) Whatever- it suits us just fine. Fits all our bike and musician-y stuff in that big ol' hatch back.

And no, we did not get the camping kit option that was such a selling point with this particular vehicle in its heyday. We're not really camping people.

Anyway, Blue Book value on Ike is only $4500 right now. Dave Ramsey says the cheapest car you'll ever own is the one you already have that's paid off...but it would be foolish to pour $3000 into a car that's 10 years old. What if the transmission went out next week? Besides that- we don't have $3000. We don't have $300!

My parents started talking to their car dealer friend, and they all started conspiring to get us a different car- but it couldn't come at a worse time of year. I don't work all summer long, which means I don't get paid for 3 months. And we like our weird car. It's got room for all our stuff. And it's nice. I can't imagine we'd find a very nice car on a zero budget.

Well, Friday afternoon happened to be set-up day for 5th grade graduation. I was already reeling from the news about the car, and had been burning the candle at both ends to make a graduation DVD for each of the 26 kids in Xander's class, plus a big performance that I was getting ready for on Saturday. When I went in to help with setup for the evening event, I was kind of a basket case. Linda- one of our praying moms at our school (another volunteer thing that I head up) caught me in the hallway and asked me an unrelated question, then looked at me keenly and said, "Are you OK?"

I said, "Well, I've been better."

I told her about the stupid car situation (I HATE being this stressed out about money), and she said, "We need to just start praying for a car for you. God can do that you know. I have a friend who....(story of miraculous answer to prayer here)"

I stood there on my fragile little thread of faith and said, "Maybe God doesn't do stuff like that for me. It seems like every time I pray for something, the opposite happens these days. So, you could pray for that for me."

That precious woman grabbed me around the neck and prayed for me right there in the hallway of our public school. And I broke into a hundred weepy pieces.

Graduation was fine, and frankly, that night at bedtime, I was still quite bitter at God about the whole stupid money thing. My prayers were ugly and honest.

That evening, Matt tweeted, "Finally sitting still and thinking through our options after my beloved Aztek took a dive today. No cash to fix it or replace it. #whattodo" and got some very kind responses from friends from church. Apparently, Matt knows a guy.

You wouldn't just volunteer to fix a head gasket if you didn't know what you were doing, right?

Anyway, Matt called this guy from our church (who shall remain nameless, as will his shop- per his request). Turns out, he manages a service shop, and he and his wife had long ago decided that they didn't have a ton of money, but car repairs were something they could offer as a way to bless people in need. So when Matt called him and asked, "What's the bottom line? How much are we talking?" He said, "Let's just say it's taken care of."

WHAT?!?

Monday morning, after a busy weekend which involved hauling a sound system and several silent auction items to a neighboring town & back in my VW Beetle (Mäizy, in case you're wondering her name), I called AAA again, and had Ike towed to a different shop. The tow truck guy remembered me (who could forget, right?), and even though it was slightly more than 5 miles, didn't charge me any overage. What a nice guy.

Matty (bless his heart) rode his bicycle everywhere that whole week. On Tuesday, he put in 36 miles on his single-speed mountain bike. On Wednesday afternoon (last day of school- yey!), we got the call from our friend that the car was done, so Thursday, we went over and picked it up.

Then he let us go.

Just like that.

I guess God does do stuff like that for me. What a nice thing to be a part of a community. Matt's been fixing bikes for people in this same manner for years, and I sometimes exchange voice lessons for babysitting & yard work if a student has to pay for his or her own lessons instead of mom & dad picking up the tab. It's really nice to be the recipient of such good will just for being a part of the Body of Christ.

This whole thing was put in perspective that same day, as we learned that Ady, a 4-year-old girl from our church was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. All of us are heartbroken for this family, and though it's a curable disease, the journey ahead will be really awful.

Lord, thank you for the health of my family. I promise to learn my lessons from the little disasters you send my way. Bless my kids and my husband and protect them. Please hold sweet little Ady in your hands and bring your miraculous healing to her body. Thank you for your provision. Thank you for the honor of serving you. Thank you for the blessing of being a part of your Body.


Epilogue:

Oh, so Tuesday afternoon, praying mom Linda came over to me at the skating rink (after-school skating party) and says, "So... any big miracles to report?"

As a matter of fact...

Sort of makes me think about the story in Mark 2 about the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him down through the roof to get to Jesus to heal him. Jesus saw the faith of his friends, and forgave the man and healed him.

I'm pretty thankful for some awesome friends.