Cars and God’s Sovereignty

Before leaving Canada, the Ugandan WorldVenture Field Director, Kirk, asked us if we wanted Robert, the Business Manager, to be on the lookout for a suitable car for us…and the answer was YES! Soon after our arrival, we began to hear “horror stories” of driving in Kampala…and of course, observed with some misgivings the drivers of the too-many-cars-for-the-number-of-roads here. “Lord, should we really get a car?” Sunday afternoon, a call came from Robert saying he had a silver 2002 Toyota Rav4 ready for us to look at. He mentioned it had taken a lot of searching to find a good one at a reasonable price. Early yesterday morning (Monday), Robert picked us up and took us to see it. Here it is:

(Yes, Laura, the driver, is sitting on the right side of the car.) 

After consulting with the Field Director, we agreed to purchase the vehicle.  Earlier today (Tuesday), the missionary responsible for handling the cash distributions “forgot” to leave the money for our car in the designated place for Robert to get it. After she returned to right that situation, Robert suddenly was tied up with another matter. Finally, a few hours later than planned, Robert took the cash to the dealership for the down payment. BUT Ivan, the salesman, was flabbergasted to learn, in Robert’s presence, the car had been sold within the last couple of hours…due to a mix-up that happened while he was briefly out of the office on official business. As Ivan apologized profusely, he, wanting to keep his customer happy, offered a 2004 blue Rav4 at the same price as what he was asking for the 2002 silver Rav4 (representing a fairly large discount).  Since Robert’s mechanic had looked at several cars (including this one) as part of the search for a vehicle for us, he had already given the green light on the blue Rav4 but recognized that we, the buyers, would probably not want to spend that much money. Within minutes of this offer, Robert phoned us, came to pick us up and took us to see this newer (and nicer) car. Here it is with Robert as happy as Laura is:

After dropping us off, he headed back to the dealership to work through a final agreement and put a down-payment on it. It seems that God, in His sovereignty, orchestrated events so that we could get the newer blue model at a price we could afford. Stay tuned, we hope to be able to tell the rest of the story later this week.