More Autobio—Provision in Germany

On the way home from hospital after my angiogram, Christian said, “My wife and I would like to give you a car. We bought this one recently and put an ad for our old one in the paper, but for some reason the paper never printed it. I think the Lord did that so we could give it to you!”

I was flabbergasted! He wasn’t even a believer, hardly knew me and was making an offer like this! I certainly wasn’t going to refuse it. The only drawback was that Dr. Christian’s car had a standard transmission. We’d hoped to get a car with an automatic so Barbara could drive; but on the other hand, if Barbara didn’t have to drive, it would take some stress out of her life here.

The next day we went over to Dr. Christian’s to see the car. And what a car it was! A luxury VW station wagon with four wheel drive, 16 inch tires, a 6 cylinder diesel engine, 6 speed transmission, individually heated seats, and so on. it was a true doctor’s car. And it was a beautiful spruce green, one of my favorite colors. It was everything I’d ever wanted in a vehicle but never had!

As I looked it over, Dr. Christian said, “I’ve decided not to give it to you, but to keep it in my name. That way I can put it on my insurance and I will also pay the taxes on it.” Wow! That would save us a bundle of money! The Lord certainly was showering us with His goodness. Later that week Dr. Christian took me with him to reregister the car and got us “JC 12” for a license plate. “I thought that a plate mentioning Jesus Christ and His 12 disciples would be good for a believer like you!” he said. How thoughtful!

Then the next week when we went to visit Dr. Christian and Melanie, he reached out his hand and said, “Here, take this.” “What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a credit card. Use if for your diesel fuel purchases and I’ll cover the costs!” In addition, he proceeded to pay for all the repairs on the car when needed, put new tires on it, changed the summer and winter tires at the proper time and even paid my traffic fines! This was a whole series of wonderful gifts from God through this man-----much better than being able to sell our old car in Turkey and then buy another ancient one here in Germany. The Lord was filling our cup to more than overflowing!

Moving to Europe from the Turkish economy had meant that our income was not going to cover our expenses very well, especially with the value of the dollar dropping constantly. But now, with Dr. Christian and Melanie’s gifts, more than one third of our expenses were covered. What a wonderful provision from God!

Not only did He provide us with transportation, but this car was so much fun to drive that when Barbara would suggest we go downtown, I was ready to go, just to be able to drive it more! And when it came to driving on the autobahn, we could buzz along at 100 to 110 miles per hour (160 to 180 kilometers per hour) and it felt like we were doing 60, it was so smooth and stable. We praised Him every time we got in the car, and we thanked Him just as often for Dr. Christian and Melanie’s generosity.

Our friendship with Dr. Christian and Melanie was also a gift. Almost every week I would ride to work with Dr. Christian and while he was in surgery, I would sit in the waiting room and work on email and my writing. It was usually the most productive day of my week.

During the 90-minute ride there and back we had great talks, discussing many of the theological questions Dr. Christian had, as well as doing Bible reading and talking about apologetics. After a year of this he said, “Now I believe. I believe that God exists, that the Bible is true and that Jesus died for my sins. But I’m not ready to surrender my life to Him; at present I have no impetus to do so.”

“Ok…..” I said, “I will treat you as a believer and we’ll move into discipleship lessons. God will bring you across the line when you are ready.” And so God did more than a year later when, in response to a crisis, Dr. Christian prayed on his own to accept Christ as Savior and Lord. We all rejoiced at God’s faithfulness in answering our prayers. It was quite a trade we had: he gave me a car, I led him to eternal life!

Picture: the car Dr Christian loaned us parked below the two windows of our little apartment.