It's Big, it's pearlescent white....and it's paid for!

Kelly and I have been looking for a car since Jason totaled his early last week. He's doing fine and is back to work already, praise God!

Once we found that the market for $1,000 cars is almost non-existent these days,we had to raise our sights some. At one point, we even determined that we should put some money down and finance a newer model. We were praying consantly but were unable to come to agreement. When Kelly was ready to make a purchase, I was hesitant and when I was ready to go full tilt, she was tentative. We wanted to be in full agreemnt as to how to go forward. Finally we reluctantly decided that we would buy a newer model and finance for only two or three years, putting all of our savings down.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Kelly we need something that will last for a while.
Kelly: Yes but we haven't had a car payment on over 15 years!
Me: I know that but the cars that are out there that we can afford to pay cash for have too many miles for the money.
Kelly: Well, OK. What do you want to get?
Me: Something sensible but with a back seat. Nothing too ostentatious. Something reasonably decent on gas mileage but not too large.
Kelly: OK, I trust you.

After shopping for a few days and finally convincing myself that a 2007 Dodge Magnum with a Hemi in it was just the ticket, I was ready to sign the papers and tear off towards the horizon with my gas card in one hand and my payment book in the other.

Maybe it's age or maybe it was the Lord. I just didn't feel right about it. I just couldn't bring myslf to go that far into debt.

So I went down to see Greg Stanley at Summit Motors, just behind Sheetz in Warrenton. I've known Greg for a long time and have done a lot of business with and for him. He's a brother in Christ and one of the three people in Warrenton I would trust implicitly in buying a car.

I explained to Greg what I was looking for (you know, the 'sensible' stuff) and he said, "I think you might have to stretch a bit but I have just the car for you!"







It's over 15 years old but it's in beautiful condition. We got it for far less than the down payment was going to be on the Magnum and I've got resources left over to purchase all the gas I could ever use for years. Once Kelly saw it, we were immediately in agreement that;

(1) we would never pick this car out on our own

(2) this was the one we were supposed to get.

It's huge! I had to take it out of the county to turn it around. We went to fill the tank and the folks at Sheetz adn they shut down the store, gave everyone the day off with pay and had a free bar-b-que for the community. I got a call from President Bush thanking me for doing almost as much as he did to stimulate the economy.

Our bottom line, we have a great (in many ways) car, we spent less than $4,000 and we got to pray with our salesman while we did the paperwork! Is God good or what?