Good news, great news, relationships

I took the truck I have been temporarily assigned to a service center in Amarillo yesterday because I had a feeling the work I needed to have done would need to be done by someone who would take the time to solve an ongoing problem with the truck. It took most of the day but they were able to identify and rectify a front end issue the truck had had for over a year. The final bill was less that $200. My company was happy and I was happy. It drives like a new truck. It is still an F-250, not a Cadillac, but it doesn’t beat me so badly.


Grandpa and I went to pick up the truck late in the afternoon. On the way there I got a call from the bank. Kody King, the banker, was pretty excited. The appraisal came back in and it was higher than he had expected; not so high that it will offend the sellers, yet high enough that he can offer to roll a part of the closing into the loan. It is exactly what I have been praying for. Praise the Lord!

I will know the exact numbers today but the final tally should leave us about $15,000 ahead of where we would have been. That will allow us to buy some of the start up equipment (used of course) and still have the money to buy the log home package, make repairs to the house on the property, and do a lot of cleanup. That really was great news! By the end of the day today we should have the closing date set, the closing costs fully disclosed and our final travel plans worked out. At least, that is my expectation.

Grandpa had found a trailer he wanted to show me. It is one on which we could haul a tractor or other large equipment. The price is not unreasonable, but it would require a truck to match its hauling potential. That is something we have been praying about for several months: Grandpa especially. The place marketing the trailer also had some used trucks we were going to look at, but as we passed it on our way to the exit we noticed it was closed so we decided to look at the place we had found a truck before. It was on the same side of the freeway on our way to the trailer place.

As it happened, there was a black F-350 at the corner of the lot. As is with used car lots, most of the vehicles had a price and other information written on the windshield. This one did not and we began to wonder if it was a personal vehicle of one of he salesmen. When Mama went and asked she found out it was for sale and the price really caught our attention. It is a 1999 year model Turbo Diesel set up perfectly for our needs for $8400. Some time this afternoon Grandpa and Mama will be going back for a test drive.

Cori should be back home today and I know her children will be happy to see her. I know Maggie will be happy to see her also. Her husband will be ecstatic to have her home. Life just is not the same when husband and wife are separated – regardless of how worthy the cause. It has been a good time for Cori and I know she appreciates Maggie being there to allow her to go to this conference. What I am curious to see is how much it will affect her relationship with the young people of the church. I am not sure what age group she traveled with but I expect that it will have made a great deal of difference in how they will see her relationally. Time will tell, but God always does more in any given situation that we realize and all He does has eternal value.

That is one of the reasons I have always freely welcomed into our home any child with whom Mama made contact. I will not know until eternity how profound an impact Mama has made or on whom that impact was made through her time babysitting these little ones or teaching them in our children’s churches because our God majors in relationships. She will receive the greater share of the credit, but by default some will spill over to me. I love being in the support role.

All of our successes in life will depend on the strength of the relationships we build. Take time to build strong ones. Start with God and work your way out from there.