Our car has been fantastic.  We bought it second hand 7 years ago with 60,000 miles on the clock already and we've not had any trouble with it at all.  Well, we hadn't until about 2 months ago.  It juddered, it lost power on hills and when we asked what the problem might be the answer was 'old age'.  (Have any of you had the doctor say that to you yet?  Not great is it?)

But, it only happened occasionally, and whilst we knew we would have to get a new car within the next year we were slightly taken aback when the car failed it's MOT (Ministry of Transport annual road-worthiness test) and seemed to get dramatically worse overnight.  The cost of repairs is huge and not worth it, all considered.  (We've got over 120,000 miles on the clock now)  So, we've gone from 'we need a new car soonish' to 'we need one NOW!'.  We are allowed a few days grace because the old MOT runs out Mon 30th June, and you're allowed a few days to get repairs done, but even so, the pressure is on to do something very quickly.

Had I have posted this 2 days ago, the situation was a bit dire.  We don't have money for a new car, and when I say new I mean second-hand, new to us.  Strangely for me I wasn't worried!  I just felt sure that the Lord would help us.  And you know what, He has!  Very quickly, someone gave us a great gift specifically to get a new car.  With the few savings we have we looked online to see what we could buy.  We want another Toyota because both we've had so far have been fantastic, and we liked the idea of one of the new 'hybrid' models.  Have you seen how much they cost???  So we're sticking with a 'normal' car, though going for diesel this time as it works out cheaoper to run.  We found something which looked okay, but had a shortfall, and then we were offered a short-term, but interest free, loan to cover the difference!  Wow!!

We've put a deposit on the car and it will be ready on Weds or Thurs.  I am both praising the Lord for all He's done and continuing to ask for His help, because, whilst the loan is great, we need to be able to pay it back!  I'm still not worried and I'm sure I'll have another 'praise report' soon!