Winning a Car ~ John Kuperus

One of the ways God has blessed us is with the winning of a car at the Bradley Caldwell show.  Every year this company has two trade shows where they treat their dealers royally.  This show we are served great food for the 2 ½ days and the entertainment was Sarah Evans, a country and western singer.  In addition, dealers are offered great prices from about 200 vendors displaying their products.  Collectively sales of about $15 million took place over 2 ½ days. 

            To add to the attraction of the show, prizes are awarded at the end of the show.  This year’s awards were a 2011 Chevy Avalanche SUV, 2011 Chevrolet convertible Camaro and an iPad.  As dealers place orders at different vendors, they were given tickets for every $100 worth of orders.  Dealers would tear the ticket in half and one half is entered into a plexi-glass tub that spins and the other half the dealer keeps.  Both halves have identical numbers so at the end of the show, when the tub is loaded with tickets; one ticket is drawn to determine who the winner of the prize is. 

            Our store manager, Wende Clausen, placed all the orders.  I was busy buying booths where vendors were selling their products at the show at exceptional prices.  Wende had her eye on the truck because that would be more practical for our business.  I suggested we spread them out between the different prizes.  As they drew out the ticket for the car, I heard “Wende Clausen” over the loud speaker.  We had won the 2011 yellow with black stripes, convertible; Chevrolet Camaro.  It was like one of those surreal moments that are too good to be true.  Wende first words to me were “God has blessed us” and I wholeheartedly agreed. 

            Wende’s daughter Erika was holding the winning ticket.  Then we had to address who was going to drive the car home.  I had the Farmside delivery truck, Wende had her vehicle and Erika was free.  Wende decided she was going to drive it home and Erika was going to drive her vehicle.  Later Wende told me that she drove white knuckled all the way to Seaside Heights, which is about 1 ½ hours away.  The next day she was able to enjoy the vehicle driving it in the sunshine to work. 

            Even though we enjoy the sports car, we decided to sell it.  We hope it finds a good home.  Wende will be rewarded and we are planning on using the cash in the business for improvements.  

September Update

It's bad. I know.

Failing to post a blog post for about a month is decidedly an all-time low for me. I even stopped visiting the blog to look at the page views. (A constant source of pride for me.)

I apologize.

Anyway ... here's how things have been going in the last month or so:

We took a little trip to the mainland  and tied up some loose ends and business matters there (remember The Yard Sale?). We got to hang out with our friends and family (David Amels - that would be you) for a while , and my dad preached in a few churches. Then we hopped aboard our twelve-seater van (which we fondly call 'the bus') and drove across the US.

After days of inaction and far too much McDonalds, after waving bye-bye to a six-pack, and having some roadside accidents (which I had planned to blog about but never got to), we finally pulled into Redlands, California, which was our destination.

From there we boarded a plane.

And here we are now in Hawaii. School has started and I'm pretty busy with class and should probably not be blogging at this moment. (I'm in high school now.) My parents are busy preparing the campus for the new students coming in. My sisters are supposed to be busy doing homework.

And I am very happy that I can finally settle down into the wonderful bliss of a normal life.

As that goes.

At the moment, I'm staring in several directions at once. I am, of course, staring blankly at the computer screen and wondering what else to say. I am looking inside my brain at the idea of spending the next two years in Hawaii -- and am grinning from ear to ear. I am, of course, definitely not looking in the direction of my geography homework.

Oh, and best of all -- OUR HOUSE IS NOT INFESTED BY TERMITES!! Man, am I pumped.

What low standards, you think.

I know. I know.

We are staying in one of the newer apartments on campus, which is furnished with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a nice big living space with a refrigerator, dinner table, sink -- and a lack of termites.

Finally, I have a room with a proper lock on the door, and I only have to share it with my brother.

It's beautiful.

The Road Trip By John Kuperus

Miracles:

Financial provisions: 

We did our Crossroads Discipleship Training School with the Outreach to India from September 2010 until February 2011.  The cost of this training for our family was $50,000.  This was a big number and I wrestled with God on how to move forward in this mission.  One morning I sensed God speaking to me and he said “Has my arm grown weak?”  I responded by saying “If your arm is not weak, I am willing to test your arm.” 

We moved forward and ventured off to Hawaii.  As we went through the training, we were so blessed.  Financially we were able to miraculously pay for the training by those who sponsored us and some of our own funds.  Then we needed to come up with another $25,000 for the outreach to India.  This is when we would be implementing what was taught.  The cost of outreach was $25,000 and we had to borrow $21,000. 

The outreach was very interesting in India. 

The challenge we faced is how do we repay this loan?  At first I thought I would have to add this to a mortgage we had, but God had other plans.  We returned to Ontario to visit, to share with our friends and to have a moving sale of our household goods.  We were so blessed in Canada with the Wiersmas providing their house as a place to stay, the Blyth CRC offering us a lot to have the moving sale and many offers of food. 

By God’s grace the money we received from supporters, tax return and money we received from the moving sale, we were able to pay back the $21,000 that we borrowed.   God’s arm is indeed strong. 

Miracle #2

We made a commitment to serve in missions with YWAM at the University of the Nations in Kone, Hawaii.  Hawaii is a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we wanted to have our vehicle with us.  We were in Hawaii for six months without a vehicle and being we had made a long term commitment, we wanted to have a means of transportation on the island.    

We decided to ship our van to Hawaii.  We could have it picked up and delivered to a port, but I had decided we would deliver it to a port ourselves.  So we ventured on a cross country trip again. 

Helen returned to Hawaii to be part of the preparation for the schooling for our children.  They are enrolled in the International Christian School, which is a collective home school. 

I asked Uncle Marv if he would be willing to travel with us across the USA again.  Uncle Marv is my brother-in-law Jack Datema’s uncle and we met him when we came back from California in February.  Uncle Marv said “Yes.” 

We were traveling along and making good time.  Suddenly in the state of Utah, the van began to sway like it was out of control.  Uncle Marv pulled over and Brianna was the first to spot that we had a flat tire on the driver’s rear side.  Joshua and I proceeded to change the flat tire. 

We were able to jack up the van and get the tire off, but then we were unable to get the spare tire lose from underneath.  I thought we needed to turn the part in the center of the tire and it would come down.  I was hitting it with the wrench and it was moving slowly.  My arm got tired, so I decided to take a break and climbed out from underneath the van.  Just as I was out, the van began to move and fell off the jack.  I observed the place where I was laying and was in awe.  That would have crushed me and I would have been sent to the hospital with broken ribs or sent home in a coffin.  I came around to the front door and Uncle Marv said “Thank you Lord,” as he noticed I was unhurt. 

We were able to jack up the van again but still we were not able to get the tire out.  I called Tire King in Sussex, NJ to get advice on how to get the tire off.  We were still unsuccessful.  Finally I called 911 and ½ hour later a man with roadside service stopped by.  He too was unable to get the spare tire off, so he repaired the broken tire. 

Thank you Lord for sparing my life.