When we returned to Slovakia last year, we didn’t have a car. Blaho family, Barcas parents, lent us their 7-seat car which we have been using all the way until January 2019 even though we no longer stayed at their house in Malinovo. Since our son Nehemiah was born in December, the whole family could no longer fit in the car. Our car related story began back in the US last year when we thought that we would stay there and I would be employed at school and would be able to afford a decent used car from my salary. We desperately needed a car that would not break on the road like most of the cars we’d had so far. We started to pray for a car that would be no older than three years. We kept praying after we returned to Slovakia, although it was really hard for me to imagine that we would ever be able to afford a new car. To be honest, I have a thing for old cars, especially those from the 80s. However, at the same time, I cannot repair a car myself which means that I have to pay a lot of money for all the service and reparations.
In the month of August I started to travel around Slovakia to attend all kinds of meetings and was paying attention to the cars I saw. One of them I liked in particular. There was this thought at the back of my head, what would people think if we as missionaries bought a new car. In September my family and I attended a Christian conference in Nitra and Peter Protero was preaching about the mentality of poverty. I had to repent from my attitude when I thought that as a missionary I could not buy a new car. On our way home I apologized to my kids for my lack of faith and on Monday we all walked into the Citroen store where they had the model I was hoping for. We have already told you about our faith-shopping.
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Later in that month we attended a mission related conference in Czech republic. There was a call to financially support missionaries who are preparing to enter the mission field abroad. It was a special offering where people were first asked to pray and ask God how much they should donate. After the prayer time, Barca and I decided to give 10 percent of the expected price of our potentially new car. We did not have that amount of money and we had no idea how to get it. We placed pictures of our future car in different colors on the fridge door and kept it in our prayers. After some time we all agreed that we liked the brown version the most. When I was in the US back in November to clear out the house we lived in for the past 6 years, I managed to sell a lot of things. When I asked Barca which loan we were going to pay off with the money, she looked at me with a surprised expression and said that we were going to use the money to support the missionaries as we promised. So we sent them all the money I brought back from the US and it was still only half of what we promised to donate.
I got an email from our rentals at the end of november in which they informed us that they got a new offer and would be moving out within a week. Barca and I bought the apartment thirteen years ago. We went to see it and found out that it was quite damaged and we would have to invest a lot of money into renovation if we wanted to keep subletting it as we’d done the last ten years. We didn’t have money for the renovation so we decided to sell the apartment.
The real estate agency came to take pictures of it and the same week the offer was published on the internet we found a buyer who payed the deposit and signed the preliminary purchase contract. Based on all the stories we’ve heard we expected the process to take several months because the apartment did not have the most attractive location. Due to Christmas holidays things did not get finalized before the end of January, but even before Christmas we new, that if we pay off all our debts and send the second part of the donation to the missionaries, we will have some amount left for the down payment of the car. To be honest, I was really hoping that God would give us a car as a Christmas gift and I was eagerly expecting it to happen every day.
I visited all car sales that had 8-seater models in their inventory. I got all kinds of offers but I still liked the model offered by Citroen, Peugeot and Toyota the most. I thought we would end up buying a Citroen, but it was eventually Toyota that gave me the best offer and the longest guarantee. The offer was made for a 1 year old car that was expected to be released from the leasing company after the 10th of January. I told them that I expect to have the money available by the end of January and if they still would have the car, I would come and see it. I didn’t do any further action after that.
In January I decided to pray and fast, because this period of our lives was not easy for us and I wanted to make sure that my steps would be in accordance with what God wants from me. I also believed to receive and answer regarding the car. On the last day of fasting I still did not have an answer and I was asking God if he wanted me to keep on fasting. The next day I went to see our pastor and other church elders and asked them to pray for us. When pastor Pasho was praying, he was asking for an answer by 10 pm of that extra added day of fasting. Just to explain, I was asking God to confirm if we were to buy the car and commit to paying off the monthly payment. I was not only asking for a mental confirmation but also some kind of a physical confirmation. I prayed for a specific thing as a sign and asked God to give us money in the amount that would equal one month of the payment of the car.
9.30 pm I was already in bed reading the Bible in Matthew chapter 14 where disciples are asking Jesus to send the crowd that was following him back to the city, so that they could eat. Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd instead. They told him they did not have anything but 5 loaves of bread and 2 pieces of fish. Jesus asked for this food. As he blessed this food and gave it out, 5000 men got fed, excluding women and children. As I was reading it I realized that the disciples’ behavior was just like mine then. I was asking God to fulfill my need and when God told me to take care of it myself, I would tell him I didn't have anything. Suddenly my eyes opened and I realized that a few days ago I attended a church service where I was sharing a testimony about the mission among the Native Americans and I was given an envelope from a volunteer offering. I jumped out of bed and hurried to see how much money there was in the envelope. The amount equalled one month payment of the car. I was overwhelmed by the goodness of God.
The next day I called the contact person at Toyota and asked him about the car that was expected to be available in the beginning of January. It was almost the end of the month and the guy told me that they still had the car because they reserved it for us. I was shocked because a one-year-old car with a 15 000 km mileage could have been sold within a few hours for that price. We went to see the car the same week. It was exactly as our dream car looked like. Brown color, longest model and a bluetooth radio. The oil was freshly changed, we got the car including summer tires and a 4-year guarantee for factory errors. On our way back, even though we all were super excited, I again was filled with fear and doubt if this was not too expensive of a car for a missionary family. I contacted a friend from our church who knows a company abroad that sells used cars in a good price. When I saw the offers he sent me, some of the cars might have been a bit cheaper, but they had at least 100 000 km mileage and no guarantee. As I was thinking about the offer, I continued to read the gospel of Matthew. In chapter 15 we can read about 4000 men that were fed with a few loaves of bread and fish. In chapter 16 Jesus criticized the Pharisees and later tells his disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. The disciples, however, forgot to bring bread and were not sure what they would eat. Jesus strictly rebuked them and called them to be of little faith - have you not seen me feed thousands of men with a few loaves of bread and fish and there were even left overs, so why are you scared of not having anything to eat? As I was reading that passage, it was as if Jesus was speaking directly to me - Roman, do not be of little faith. Have you not seen me provide for you and your family the past several years? You have never been lacking anything and you even had enough to bless others. I repented and did not want to provoke God anymore. I knew I had to take a step of faith. On Monday we got the money transferred and we initiated the car purchase. On Thursday night I brought the car home. God has blessed us with a car where we all can fit, a car that is new and into which we do not have to invest every month for it to work. We are very thankful to our heavenly Father for helping us climb another mountain. This testimony is not meant to celebrate our faith or to promote the gospel of prosperity, but to bring glory to our heavenly Father who fulfills all of our and your needs.
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