new wheels.

As of today, we are the proud owners of a new car! Well, new to us. And free to us, too!

Some friends of ours are just now transitioning back to life in the States. They have loved our community well in many ways–coming to play with the kids in the afternoon, helping us to set up the community computers, employing one of our friends as a house help, and faithfully supporting Flour & Flowers every single week.

Phil also played bass for nearly every OneHouse worship night since we started, and they’ve been sweet friends to us.

And now, they’ve gifted us their car!

This is a photo of us with their family.

I’m not sure Daw Ma Oo or Pyo Pyo could have been more excited to now have a delivery vehicle with four doors! Daw Ma Oo kept telling me that she is praying for God to bless them for their gift 🙂

Here is our last Flour & Flower deliveries in Zuk, complete with three adults, two kids, 23 loaves of bread, 160 tortillas, and 11 bouquets of flowers filling this four-seat vehicle. We also took a trip to the clinic last week with eight adults and three kids squeezed in. I’m pretty sure all the neighbors know a bigger car is a gift to them, too!

And let me tell you, it’s an upgrade.

We gained a car ten years newer! We also now have these privileges:

Four doors. This is an incredible upgrade–for bread, for pregnant women, for women in labor, for old people, for people with broken knees and legs, for stab victims.

Aircon with multiple settings. Zuk was either on full blast or off. Or if you put it on a lower setting, it added humidity, which heaven only knows this country does not need more of. Also, the cold setting is the blue one that says cold.

Automatic windows. And even better, the handle isn’t made out of bolts, like in Zuk.

3.0 liter engine, compared with 1.3 liter: you make it up those hills quite a bit easier.

And, we still have leather seats (a big plus for vomit, fish paste, and blood) and four-wheel drive (a big plus for rainy season & flooding). What can we say? This is a pretty idealistic car for us. Not too new or flashy that it can’t be roughed up a bit; instead, rough enough to handle our lives and neighbors.

I do feel a bit like a soccer mom with all those seats behind me, but they are usually full. By the toys filling our house and huge SUV, you’d never guess it was just the two of us! But it rarely is, I suppose 🙂