Family Van

Very brief story. Our local mechanic is great. It's Ernie (JoAnn) and the guys over at Meineke on 47. We've been driving very old, struggling vehicles for some time and they have kept us running. That time ended several weeks ago as both cars in a three day span were diagnosed with very serious problems that weren't worth fixing for the cost. My income as a pastor didn't leave room for a car payment so we were stuck.

Some friends, both local and over the internet, heard about my problem and made it public on their websites and in our local church. Within a few weeks we were given near $12,000 for a new (used) van. We have four kids, it has to be a van!

We started looking at pretty much any van on the market and didn't find anything our mechanic would approve. So he made us a list of the vans they thought were the best. #1 was the Honda Odyssey. We found the closest dealer is in Crystal Lake (Brilliance Honda) and found a great used van there. Our mechanic checked it before we bought it and said it was one of the best used cars, in the best condition, that they have ever checked. We paid cash.

Have you ever been in such need and someone (or many people) came to your rescue? We have a great used van today that is safe for our family because of the generosity and love of our church and Christians around the world who wanted to help this pastor out. It's a beautiful thing.

So for fun, I made this video that would introduce our new van to the world. Enjoy!