RMI’s ministry in Haiti needed a truck. And not just any truck…a box truck, diesel, stick shift, good to excellent condition, as low as possible mileage and within a moderate price range. …and it was needed ASAP. So RMI missionary, Greg Harvie flew to Miami and stayed with RMI Board members John and Linda Garner. South Florida is a very large area, so it was reasoned that in all of those dozens of cities there could conceivably be THE truck that was needed. The week trip turned into 10 days and it went something like this:
Several days of checking out truck after truck and finding that if the truck was in the right price range it wasn’t diesel, and/or stick, and/or low mileage, and was usually much the worse for wear.
He learned that demand for the kind of truck he was looking for is unusually high because of the close proximity to the Port of Miami. That Port is the gateway to the Caribbean, South and Central America. And they all want those kinds of trucks.
To get what RMI needed, he would have had to put down almost twice the amount he had budgeted…which wasn’t possible.
RMI’s VP of Ops, Kim Rose, joined Greg for a couple of days.
After the discouraging Miami/Ft. Lauderdale hunt, they expanded their search on the internet to the entire state of Florida and found 1. Just 1. In Jacksonville. 5 hours away.
They headed north and were there when the dealer opened the next morning. And they found that God is a God of details.
The truck was a newer model than what they’d been looking at. It was diesel. It was stick shift. It was in immaculate condition. It had 40,000 less miles on it than anything they’d seen in Miami. And the dealer was willing to lower the price a bit which kept it in the allotted budget.
So – they found THE truck. Just not in South Florida.
They drove it to Miami where Greg looked for a new seat (the driver’s seat was the only place that showed some wear). The prices were prohibitive but at one store the manager said, “well, why don’t you just get it recovered?” He led him to a place where the owner said, “If you’re willing to wait, I can do it now.” So he waited. Then he bought 2 new tires that it needed. And it was ready to send to Haiti. Just like that.
He took it to the Port where it will be shipped next week. And begin it’s new life in service of the God of details.
[The “dots” on the front of the truck are lovebugs from the trip down from Jacksonville. It’s lovebug season here.]
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