Cars & Kiwis: Victory in the End

The afternoon of the big earthquake in Shizuoka Sarah and Ako were on their way to Children's Hospital to visit one of our babies there when a van ran coming out of a side street ran the stop sign and plowed into their car. I rushed to the scene and took Sarah to the emergency room. She had been knocked out for a few seconds and does not remember what happened. She was fine and still is. However, our car was severely damaged.

After weeks almost 2 months of hassling our 2 insurance companies have still not reached a settlement. We are hoping they will pay 80% of the repair cost. Without our go-ahead to repair the old car, it got repaired. Without knowing this, we signed all the papers with our old friend to purchase a very nice 8 year old Nissan Station wagon. So, we have bills now on two cars. If the insurance company pays the 80% we still need about $6,500 to pay off all the cars. [We've been trying to sell our repaired car but so far NO one is interested.] BUT, based on years of trusting the Lord in many unexpected situations we have learned to expect this to be a blessing (in the end) and not a disaster. Like Joseph told his brothers in Egypt, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result..." (Gen.50:20)

When we first moved into our church’s present location we had a kiwi orchard behind the church. One day the owner complained that some of the church boys had "destroyed his crop" and demanded that we "buy his entire harvest of kiwis." This was totally absurd but he insisted. We learned that some of the boys had shot holes in the leaves of 1 tree with rubber bands. The farmer pitched such a fit that we purchased his entire harvest just to keep up good relationships in the neighborhood (this is the Japanese way--or maybe the Asian way--whoever screams the loudest, the longest, gets his way).

One of our members who grew up in the neighborhood told his father what happened. His father remarked, "I'm not surprised. His father was a crook before him."

However, since we serve a Great God who causes all things to work together for our good we actually came out ahead on the kiwi debacle. We sold enough of the kiwis to recoup all our money and still gave away many baskets to anyone who had helped us or the church, not to mention eating kiwis at church every Sunday for weeks. They were some of the best kiwis I have ever eaten. Actually, in the end we made a profit!

I am expecting the same with this car deal. God is good and has always been faithful. Thank you for participating in His workings.

Psalms 112:7-8 says, "He [the righteous man] will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. ⁸ His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes."