Answer to Prayer----a new addition to our family fleet of vehicles.As a Dad I was worried that Richard would not have auto transportation for his wonderful new bride. I always felt the need to have some kind of automobile as a married person. (Being a guy, I wanted one anyway and felt justified in the expense.) This led to a married life of more than 25 years experiencing a lot of used cars before actually buying a new one. Once we were even given two cars because we were so broke. I would have a mechanic friend or client work on them. One finally said that there was no mechanical reason for any of my cars to continue working. He wasn't a member of the church and so he did not understand the power of desperate, sincere prayer.
Over the last few weeks I had been thinking about Richard getting the use of a car. He never asked for one. He is good about trying to provide for all of his own needs. On the other hand, we had provided a family car for other kids when they were first married until they had the ability to purchase one of their own.
Earlier this week I looked at a BMW and was very excited because it was so cheap. It was a faded black 325 two door model and had large dents. (An "experienced" car.) Additionally, where the black paint was scraped, the owner (tatoo boy) used a can of flat black paint to "cover up" the blemish. It had a torn bumper and damaged front seat. The owner said he did not know if the heater or the air conditioner worked, but it ran just fine for him. I took over a client who is a mechanic to check it out. It had over 250,000 miles on it, had a leaking thermostat, needed a new water pump, and had oil leaks all over the place. The oil leaking at the head gasket meant that the gasket was bad, or more likely, that the head itself was warped. He said he could fix all of those problems, but it would be expensive and not worth the cost as it would still be an uncertain, unrelaible car. I had checked with Earl Schide for the cheap paint job, which would last for several car washes..... We did not buy it.
My dreams at night (not inspiration) had me finding a little old lady with a beautiful used Lexus for $1500.00 where everything worked and very low miles. It would, of course, be prestigious and appropriate for broke newlyweds. As usual, telling the Lord what to provide is not the best solution.
Today I left work early to watch Granite Bay High School's girls soccer begin the playoffs. On the way to the game, I saw a BMW that looked really good and had a reasonable price on the windshield. I thought "go buy that" right then. But, I had a soccer game to watch, so I thought I would check it out on the way back from the game if it was still there. After seeing Granite Bay play miserable soccer and win (when they deserved to lose) on an unfortunate penalty kick at around the 70th minute, I went home. There was the car. My heart went pitter patter. (It usaully does around BMW's.) I stopped and checked it out. One door was unlocked, so I opened it up and checked the inside out. It was okay. (Nothing is perfect in a used car.) The outside had a few minor dents and some molding missing on one side. (Not bad for a student car.) I locked it up (to prevent others from looking too closely) and called the number to have the owner come out and let me test drive it.
I went home and waited. Soon the call came. (No, not as exciting as a mission call, but still okay.) I tried not to act too excited and the owner said he would be glad to show me the car, but had no transportation to get there. I said I would pick him up at his house. Turns out he lived around the corner from LDS families we have known for twenty years. After Gary and I picked him up, we talked about the neighbors who were mutual acquaintences. Pretty soon he said "You must be a Mormon" which was a missionary opportunity. I said yes and then we went over all of the LDS youth he had grown up with. I knew most of them. He said one of his neighbors, Jerry Manzer, was someone he was impressed with. He liked his chickens and the service he saw Jerry do for the nighbors. I naturally told him I would have Jerry talk with him about chickens. (Jerry will work the conversation around to the church without any difficulty.) He talked about the car. It was a 1988 BMW 735i with an odometer that read 125,000 miles on it. (This was hard to believe on a 22 year old car.) The engine was spotless and he mentioned that he maintained it regularly. I mentioned that it would need to go to Utah and be there for my children to use while in college. He said it would work fine. Although there are minor things to fix, I purchased the car on the spot with the peaceful feeling that the Lord had provided better than I dreamed of.
I am not sure why, but the Lord is in the details of our lives. This may not be a big deal for many people, but it was for me. I hope the car will be useful to Richard and Amy and present few, if any, problems. While it is not perfect, it is an answer to my prayer. And who knows, maybe a one of the Lord's tender mercies for Richard and Amy too.
Now I am dreaming of him finding work......
Doug Hoffman
