New Truck!!

Many thanks to all of the very generous people who contributed to our truck fund, because we are now in a new (to us) vehicle. We prayed a lot about this vehicle, and have actually been looking for some time. God always closed doors, just when we thought we had the right one, and finally opened a door for us.

The vehicle is a 1999 Toyota 4Runner. It might sound a little long in the tooth, but it only has 50,000 miles on it and looks brand new. Toyota is the gold-standard in Guatemala, not just because it's a proven tough off-road vehicle (we see absolute rolling wrecks that are still climbing those mountains), but because parts are ubiquitous. Other brands may require a 4-7 hour trip to the capital for parts, but most Toyota parts are available in almost every little town.

Now we have a pick-up truck (the Mazda) and an SUV. This increases our flexibility for transportation and, hopefully, our reliability. Again, thank you so much to everyone who donated and helped make this happen. Special thanks to Matt's dad, who drove up to Detroit to check out the vehicle, negotiated a price, bought it, drove it home, cleaned it up, and went through a million gyrations to get all the paperwork done. We would have been in a big mess without that help.

And just one more indication that this was the vehicle God wanted us to have, when we went to go get the title, there were some... well... paperwork issues. We don't want to get anyone in trouble, but we'll just say that without divine intervention, we wouldn't have this truck titled in our name.

So, in January, Matt and John Villanueva will drive the truck down through Mexico into Guatemala. We'll be needing lots of prayer coverage on that trip and the two international border crossings, so please keep us on your prayer list.

In other news, we are now in Michigan/Ohio visiting Matt's family. We went to a Michigan State basketball game last night, leaving Isaac with his paternal grandparents for our first night out since he was born. WEEE!!!! Plus, it was a 40-point victory for the Spartans!

Sunday, Isaac will be baptised with his cousin Isabella. Family will be coming in from all over the place. All four of Isaac's paternal great-grandparents will be there, as well as Daddy's godparents, tons of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and some college friends we haven't seen in years. YAY!

The day after Christmas will see us meeting up with Heidi's brother and his family in Cleveland and caravaning to North Carolina for a week there with Heidi's family.

Also, please pray for God's wisdom and clarity with some other decisions we have to make. More details later.