Providence

Background: Four couples make up the core membership of our church plant. Three of the couples have three or more children, and therefore own two vehicles. Altogether, that's seven vehicles, when you include the fourth couple, who own one vehicle. Got it?

At the beginning of November, one vehicle, belonging to the lead pastor's family-- a truck, necessary for hauling wood and taking trash to the dump-- was out of commission. Bald tires.

So the staff sergeant's family happily shared the use of their truck with all of us.

In the middle of November, the staff sergeant's family lost their van (the same make and model as our van) to a potentially fatal crash. Black ice. Everyone was fine.

Since the truck wouldn't do for long trips to town, or carrying many of their five kids, a pastor in Chester loaned them his sedan, indefinitely.

In early December, when the staff sergeant and my husband drove the truck up into the forest for firewood, the truck hit a stump under the snow, and killed the transmission. No more truck.

A week before Christmas, my husband drove his car to work, and couldn't start it at lunchtime. It froze and threw a rod. Dead.

None of us had a truck to tow it home, so a total stranger from the Chester church drove 45 minutes to pick up a tow dolly at U-Haul, then the car at the courthouse, and pull it 30 minutes back to our house. He also volunteered to return the dolly the next morning. I met him, and his wife, on our front lawn. They smiled and said, "Merry Christmas."

The lead pastor's family was able to put new tires on their truck on Friday. They offered to take everyone's trash to the dump.

My husband decided to start taking the bus to work, rather than drive the van. But the bus wasn't running today (county holiday), so he took the van. It gave out halfway up the pass. The staff sergeant met him there, assessed the damage, and drove him to work in the borrowed sedan.

He has offered us the parts from their van, to repair ours.

Do you think, maybe, God is building some community here?

Good thing we live in a three-block span. That's walkable.