JUST THE RIGHT VEHICLE!

(By:  Dorene Zuege)

About a month ago (in September 2010) I was driving home; around 7 pm. It was a cloudy night and had gotten pretty dark by then. While I was traveling around 55 mph on a back road, suddenly two deer ran across the road in front of me.  I slammed on my brakes, and was thanking the Lord that I had missed hitting them, when a third one came out of the blackness. As hard as I tried to miss that one - even swerving to avoid hitting it - I hit that poor deer anyway.  

For an instant I thought it might come through my windshield, but praise God, I saw it lifted up and fly over the top of my car.  Well, needless to say, Bambi and my little Subaru Forester didn't mix well, and it totaled my car.  

But what's kind of interesting is that only about a week or so before the accident I was thinking of all the things that were beginning to go wrong with my vehicle (over 144,000 miles on it) and had a fleeting thought of hitting a deer, which I had quickly dismissed. I loved that little Subaru. It was very dependable but it was just getting old. The cassette player and the CD player both didn't work anymore and my right front passenger window didn't roll down from the driver's side. I had to reach over and press the lever on the passenger door in order for it to operate, plus the electrical component was loose and you could actually lift it right out of its compartment. There was something under the car that kept coming loose that my husband was told was going to cost mega bucks to fix, so things were not in tip top shape for us to even consider trying to sell the vehicle and get another one. In the shape it was in, no one would have given us much of anything for it.  

Well, God took care of that problem right real quick like. The insurance company ended up giving us $1,300 more than what Kelly Blue book said the car was worth if it would have been in tip top shape!  

So then we had to go out and look for another vehicle. I wanted one that was easy for me to get in and out of. I'm short and it's hard for me to be hiking up into taller vehicles and too hard for me to be lowering myself down into the lower car vehicles. I wanted to get a bigger vehicle than my Subaru because I wanted to be able to pick up kids for church that live in the trailer court down the road from my grand kids that I already was picking up for church. I couldn't invite any of the neighbor kids, as my car only sat five people. So I wanted at least a 6-seater, easy in and out vehicle with a working CD and Cassette player in it. And one that had the audio controls on the steering wheel! Plus the pedals had to be close enough for my short legs to be able to reach. Not only all that, but my husband had to be comfortable in it too for driving. He's a BIG guy and didn't enjoy squishing himself into my little Subaru when he'd take it in for servicing, etc. So I had a big order in what I wanted in a newer vehicle. My husband's criterion was that it had to be under $10,000. I also wanted low mileage and wanted to be able to get at least around 20 mpg, even though I wanted a larger vehicle.  

We were down to comparing four different vehicles, but they were coming up short in one area or another. So this past Friday, we decided to take a nice long drive since it was such a nice warm fall day. We drove all the way to the south end of Oshkosh, Wisconsin but nothing was coming up on the car lots there. But all of a sudden the salesman asked me if I'd consider a vehicle with running boards on it. Of course I tried others, and one was hard to get into because it didn't have a grab bar to help pull yourself up into the vehicle. But I told the guy I'd try whatever it was he was thinking of. He took us into a back lot that we hadn't noticed before and low and behold, that was the vehicle that we ended up purchasing. It had everything we were looking for PLUS heated front seats which were leather, as well as a power sun roof. It has two front cup holders instead of only one like my Subaru had, plus the center console armrest opens up to a large enough bin that I can keep my purse in it without having to reach down on the passenger side floor to get at it. And it also has a tray to carry fast food munchies in it, within easy reach when I'm on the road traveling down to Milwaukee. I couldn't ask for anything more in a vehicle!  It seats seven and also has rear climate controls and also a storage center bin in the second row seats. We were able to get it for under 10K with only 67,000 miles on it. Everything else we were considering in that price range was up in 90K miles on the vehicles. And all the vehicles we looked at with that kind of mileage on them were asking around 15k for them. Talk about a blessing!  

When people ask me how I am, I usually tell them "I'm blessed coming in, and I'm blessed going out, and I'm blessed all the time in between, leaving no time without, being blessed." I firmly believe that, and I confess that almost on a daily basis and for sure at least several times a week. My papa God has given me the desires of my heart, and I can only thank Him over and over again. Now get this. Since we really hadn't counted on finding a vehicle on our ride, my husband did not take his check book with him. So I wrote out a small check to hold the car until we could come back on Saturday to pay for it cash. (We needed to get a vehicle under 10K in order to be able to pay cash. We didn't want to take out a loan, being that we are retired.)  

At home that Friday evening, I got on the internet and was reading what other owner's opinions of this particular vehicle were of it. There were a lot of good reports, and also a lot of bad reports of their experiences with this particular year and model. Finally I said to the Lord, "Lord, I need Your wisdom concerning this particular vehicle that we have made an offer on, not on all these other ones.'  

The very next report I read said, "This would turn out to be an exceptional vehicle, and it has been a God send. The maintenance has been absolutely trouble free. Wow! God sure knows how to answer in a hurry when we really need an answer now! However, I decided to read a few more, and the next two or three were all bad reports. Then I heard the LORD again, and He said, "Whose report will you believe?" And I knew the answer! 

The words of the song came immediately to my mind, "I will believe the report of the Lord" and that's exactly what I'm believing for concerning this vehicle. What timing! And God's peace came -- that peace that passes all understanding. God's word say that we are to follow after peace, and that the peace of God will guide us. GOD speaks to us in so many different ways!  

Then I was reminded of another time when God spoke to me concerning my grandbaby Rosie. That is another praise report listed here on Precious-Testimonies. All I can say is that my God is great and greatly to be praise. His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting! And yes - I am blessed, coming in and going out, and all the time in between, leaving no time without, being blessed!

 If you would like to read Dorene's born again testimony, please click: HERE

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)