Throw - Kia Sedona!

Our new(er) van is now scrap metal.  It didn't even last a year for us.  I continue to learn about vehicle maintenance the hard way. 

My ignorance is expensive sometimes.  I did not know that a Kia's timing belt should be replaced every 40,000 miles.  Or that it was made of rubber.  Or that an overheating engine could loosen it up enough to cause it to slip and lock up the engine.  I didn't know that a used engine would cost $600 and take $1,000 in labor to install. 

And I was unaware that when I plopped down $70 at Walmart a few weeks ago to get a new battery, hoping that was the only thing keeping the van from moving, I didn't know that if I actually attached the cables to it, it was now a used battery and no longer returnable.

And I couldn't have known, without the aid of a crystal ball, that when we plopped down $600 for new tires for it during a Black Friday sale, we'd get less than a month's use out of them. 

But I learned something today:  the salvage yard is willing to buy it, new tires and all for $400. 

Yeah.

The van broke down on December 23 with a coolant leak.  It sat over the holidays while mechanics were not available and/or we were out of town.  After the first of the year, the leak was fixed and I drove the van home.

Half way home.  It died en route and I had to push it into a parking space at a local business.  After the Walmart battery attempt, the van was towed back to the mechanic, who took a couple of weeks to trace the problem back through the starter, alternator, and fuel pump to the engine itself.

So we have been without a second vehicle of our own since Christmas, but some good friends from small group loaned us their truck while we waited for the mechanic's verdict.  We returned the truck last night and we've decided there's no real point in putting time and money into finding a replacement vehicle.

Melissa is only 1.5 miles from her work, so I can drop her off in the morning and pick her up in the afternoon.  It will be inconvenient ... not to mention so very un-American ... but we know we can get by with only one vehicle. 

We have decided that perhaps this is God's way of slowly weaning us off our dependency on vehicles.  Once we get to Haiti, we won't have a vehicle to call our own.  There will be mission vehicles available for our use, but that will require keeping tabs on mileage and such. 

Besides, there really won't be anywhere to go.  And having to drive through the streets of Cap Haitien is - no joke - one of my greatest fears in moving to Haiti.  (It's right up there with coaxing my 43 year old brain into learning a new language.)

Melissa's been attending a Bible study on the book of James and there we are reminded to "² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Then again, I have to keep in mind that 95% of the world would laugh at considering having "only one" vehicle to be a great trial...