As Pat and I set out on the trip to look for the vehicle, I was considering our finances and discussing it with Pat.  we decided that the only thing we could do was to see if things would work out to obtain a vehicle.  Following our discussion, we decided to pray about it and ask God to open or close the door as He thought best.  Three of our children were traveling with us and had listened in as we discussed the issue and prayed about it.

After looking around, we found a new conversion van that we fell in love with and found ourselves with a lender willing to make the loan to us to purchase the vehicle.  We decided to take the vehicle out for a drive and it was during this time that doubts arose again about whether we should, in light of our financial condition, follow through and borrow the money.  It was at this time that our son Nathaniel, who was 14 at that time, spoke up and reminded us that we had prayed about this and of the importance of believing and trusting God.  After all, we had asked God to open or close the door as He thought best and the door was open.  He reminded us by quoting the scripture in James 1:5-8 which tells us that God will, if asked, provide us wisdom in our decision making as well as pointing out the necessity of faith, nothing wavering.  “Out of the mouth of babes” as it were; whereupon on hearing that, Pat and I determined to move forward with purchasing the conversion van.  But the story does not end there.

Our finances finally caught us with us and we were forced into filing for bankruptcy in 1997.  The bankruptcy became official in January 1998 and, as part of the bankruptcy, it was necessary to agree to the bank’s repossession of the van.  The only thing we were able to retain with respect to the bankruptcy was our home and personal possessions.  Things were looking pretty desperate.  When we arrived home after meeting with the attorney, Pat went up the front steps to the front door and was distraught; saying “What are we going to do without the van?”  It was then, as I stood there in the driveway looking at Pat’s despair, that the Holy Spirit moved through me to say: “If God gave us that van, it will never leave this driveway.”

And it did not.  Despite the fact that we agreed to let the bank repossess the van as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, made no further payments on it, and subsequently contacted the bank after three months to remind them to pick up the van; the bank never followed through to repossess the van.  To jump a little bit ahead, we utilized the van until we disposed of in in 2003.  As the Holy Spirit moved through me to say in that moment of time:  “If God gave us that van, it will never leave this driveway.”….and it did not.

Well, it was now 1998 and the prosecution of the case in front of the Vermont Public Service Board was still going full bore. That said, things were looking pretty desperate for us and I was discouraged.  It was at that time that God provided an encouragement; the story of which is described in the next page: “32 – You can’t win the race if you don’t stay in the race!”