Back to March of this year.
We had just gone to a retreat with friends from International Teams, and we dropped off Jennifer at the airport so she could head back to the states for a few months. While she was gone she let us use her Toyota Land Cruiser. It was such a HUGE blessing. The Land Rover was in the shop before we left and pretty much stayed there until about a month ago. Jennifer returned in May and her Land Cruiser returned to her. Thankfully we have the dirt bike so Colin was still able to work with the drilling crew and work in the garden. I, as many of you know, strapped a green plastic chair to my bike and we (me and Silas) sailed around town like that for the last few months.
We continued to pray for the funding for a new vehicle. We knew that God would provide the funds for us to get the right rig for our program and family. Colin emailed Terry (who is our boss) about the condition of the Land Rover and told him that we were praying for the funding of a new truck.
Within about a week we had our answer. Terry told us that the money was there and we could start looking for a new Water For All vehicle! When God moves, you better be ready!
Colin had been emailing a dealership in Kampala (that has a great reputation) about what we wanted. They said they had Land Cruisers in stock and we were VERY excited about that. We flew down on Monday - which was awesome and once you've driven these roads you have a greater appreciation for not driving them! Flying, we were in the city in 50 minutes! It takes 7-8 hours driving. We picked up the Global Care Super Custom that used to be in Soroti, and drove that around so that we didn't have to do a private hire. Once we picked up the Super Custom we headed to the guest house. Car shopping was going to start on Tuesday. First thing the next day we went to the dealership to see what was in stock. Silas fell asleep so I sat in the car with him. Colin went and looked around and was back within 10 minutes. I knew that was not a great sign but we loaded up and headed out. Colin told me once we were leaving that an NGO that works in northern Uganda and South Sudan came in the day before and bought every single Land Cruiser they had. Even the high mileage ones! We even asked about the Hilux pickup trucks and they were even sold out of those.
So...We went to another lot and found two that we liked. A Toyota Land Cruiser ZX and a Toyota Hilux. Both were really nice. Our friends put us in contact with a really great mechanic and he sent two guys to check the two vehicles. The Land Cruiser was a no-go and the Hilux was clean. When we went in to talk with the mechanic, Kirit, he told us that he knew of a Land Cruiser VX (just like Jennifer's) that was for sale and if we wanted to look at it he would call the owner. We looked at it and we really really liked it. It was nicer than anything we had been looking at. However we did have a budget.
Now, all these Toyotas were '91-'93 models and would cost about $20,000 USD or about 55,000,000 UGX. Our approved budget was $25,000.
We saw the Land Cruiser that Kirit knew about and it was NICE. We drove it and knew that it was really well taken care of. Kirit maintained it and also knew that it was well cared for. When we asked how much they were selling it for the man said 28. We were disappointed to hear that because $28,000 was too much. The other ones we were looking at were just around $20,000. The weekend came and we still didn't have a truck. So Monday we went to talk to Kirit about another ZX and Hilux that we looked at and liked. We were going to go with one of those two options and even had Kirit send a guy to check them over for us. Kirit asked why we didn't like the VX that he had recommended to us. We told him that is was way over our budget. That $28,000 was too much for us. Here is the good part - Kirit seemed a bit confused for a second and then he told us that what we thought was $28,000 in USD was really 28,000,000 in UGX! So we went from what we thought was $28,000 for the Land Cruiser to a little over $10,000!!! That settled it. We arranged for the paperwork and money to all be transferred and we had a new vehicle! Thank you Lord!
We drove it home on Saturday and it was wonderful! It has AC and we had a nice cool ride the whole way. It was good on fuel, as smooth as you can get on these roads, and comfortable to drive.
We are so thankful for the answer to our prayers. God is good. This Land Cruiser is perfect for us and for the program. And because we got it for such a great price there is money left over for other program expenses. We will put a roof rack on it so we can haul drilling stuff on top. Thank you to our Water For All supporters that made this purchase possible. We are so thankful to be a part of the WFA family and are blessed to have such wonderful supporters.
So here it is...Our new vehicle.
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