Yesterday started out to be a great day! We actually got around and out the door early, on our way to being at church early!
It was a good thing we had that extra half hour….
Our church is a little over an hour away, meeting in a nursing home. We have a fellowship meal and informal afternoon service about twice a month in a building that is a quarter of a mile away from the nursing home. Yesterday was a “meal” Sunday.
We usually drop our food off first, then head to the nursing home. Just as we drove into the drive where the building for the afternoon service is, the van engine died!
Dallas was able to get it pulled into another drive, out of the way. He tried to get it started again. No go!
Thankfully, many other families drop their food off, too, so we were able to get our food transported to the building and then get us transported to the nursing home via a few vehicles!
After church, three families ferried us back over, and several men helped Dallas try to figure out what was wrong.
Just a short while later, he came in and said it wouldn’t even offer to start. There is concern it could be the fuel pump. One of the men knew of a mechanic nearby, so they called over there and one of the men happened to be there. They were able to get a towing strap and truck and tow the van over there, and they will look at it today.
We finished having dinner and the afternoon service, and then another of the men graciously offered to take us home. Remember, there are eleven of us! That meant this gentleman had to take his family home first (half an hour the other way), come back to get us, then take us all the way home, then go all the way back to his home!
We are so very grateful for God’s goodness! Haven’t heard yet what they think the problem is, but there are some very wonderful blessings I can think of, that it happened when and where it did!
~It was a “meal” Sunday. Otherwise, only two of the 20 or so families in our church would have been going that way, and may or may not have seen us.
~It didn’t happen somewhere else along the 75 miles to church!
~It didn’t happen Friday night when I was on my way home from that city after dark!
~It didn’t happen somewhere on our 5,200 mile trip out East!!!
As Dallas shared in our afternoon “praise and prayer” time, “I’m grateful we broke down in a convenient place!” 
Of course, we’re praying it’s not an expensive fix! But God has already shown His great goodness to us! I can just imagine Him dispatching a few angels to keep the van running and…
“Okay, guys, they’re in a good place now! You can let go!” 
May you look for and find His blessings today!
Tags: church family, God's goodness, van
Love your comment at the end about the angles letting go (I’m pregnant with no 9 so I almost cried…yes overly emotional at the moment.) I’d love it if you would email me my email is hayleysmail@bigpond.com. My 12 yo was encouraged by your daughters blog, “there are other girls like me:-)”
What a wonderful blessing! I just feel so blessed to belong to the one true God who doesn’t have to even notice us but yet loves us so much He goes out of his way to show us how much in the big and little things!
Oh, so true! I told my girls the other day, if all God did was save us and then did nothing else for the rest of our lives, that would be enough!
But that He actually died to restore a relationship, well…WOW!
Trisch
Oh my! Broken down cars (or vans!) are not good
To bad you didn’t break down at our house !
Then you would have had to stay longer!! 
Hugs!
Rachel ~