Well it is official, I am back in USA. We, (my wife & I), with the help of 20+ young people from summer staff, (a blessing for sure), loaded up a Uhaul truck & Trailer in 5F temps on January 3rd and departed Canada on January 4th. For a recap of that journey, visit pete n hollys world for the details.
Arriving in a new area and a new city can be a daunting task. We really don't know anyone here, but we decided on this area because of economy, weather, opportunities, proximity to family and interests. So we started our first day unloading the truck with the help of In-laws, (my in-laws & my brother-in-laws in-laws). A great amount of work was done, the truck was emptied and returned and unpacking and settling in began.
Neighbors Glenn & Sally came by on Friday to say hello and invited us to go to their church on Sunday morning. We accepted and had a wonderful time and received a timely message on why worry is sin.
Monday came and we set off to the Motor Vehicle Division, MVD, to obtain driver licenses and also import and register our two vehicles. Well, after 3 hours we only completed 25% of those tasks. I had taken the written test and gotten my DL, but the truck had an incomplete VIN sticker on the door panel so we would have to return on Tuesday for a "level II" inspection. We also needed to have our car inspected and so we returned Tuesday with both vehicles.
Now to be honest, I start each day with prayer and some of my prayers are for God to give me some connections here and also remove obstacles from our path each day. So we arrived at 8 am to the inspection center and were second in line behind another couple who had been waiting since 7 am, (they were incorrectly told that inspections started and 7 am). As we waited for the MVD Official to arrive a conversation started and we discovered that we are "brother-in-Christ" so "Mark" gave me a short list of good churches in the area to check out. The inspections started and we went our separate ways through the gov't maze. Fifteen minutes later Mark came to me and gave me his business card and stated that if I ever need some help, questions answered or assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to call. Guess what? He is a Contractor in the area, same field that I am going back into. We made small talk and parted. A connection had been made.
While I was getting the truck inspected, Holly went and stood in line to start the process on our car. My name is on the title so she was praying that the truck inspection would end before our number was called. Her prayer was answered as I entered the waiting area with a "Passed Inspection" form in my hand. Moments later our number was called and we arrived at "John's" window. Now "Richard" had dealt with us the day before and had gone through ~ 1 hour of instruction on "How-to import a Canadian registered vehicle 101" so we were a bit disappointed that we had a different person. But remember, God's ways are not our ways.
John began with many questions and sought assistance from his supervisor, who also needed assistance from her supervisor. John had been hired at the MVD just 8 months ago so this was new territory for him too. As time ticked on, we talked with John and discovered that another "brother-in-Christ" had been placed before us. He asked us where we were attending church and, (wait for it), the church Glenn & Sally took us to was the same church where John attended.
At this point I knew that God's hand was guiding the sequence of events before us.
With calmer, assured attitudes we worked through the system and $68.75 later, both vehicles now have AZ plates on them. (side note; we had to pay over $500 to Canada to register our vehicles there!).
Needless to say, I walked out of the MVD with great encouragement and hope for our future here in AZ.
What a morning!
What a great God we have!
