When God asks us to step out in faith to do something for Him, He provides. Every time a need arises in our family, God always blesses us more than if we planned it ourselves.
Our family expanded pretty quickly. We got married and before our first anniversary our first baby was born. Every year after that another little cutie joined our family.
The only vehicle we had was a little four-door car. It carried us everywhere we needed to go, but there was no elbow room. Then God blessed us once again. We knew we were going to need another vehicle soon. As the time got closer to the arrival of our fourth child, we decided to be more proactive. We sat our little children down and explained to them that we needed another van so we were going to ask God to provide one for us. We all prayed and then waited to see what God would do.
Every summer we would go to a family camp a few hours from home. While we were there, Ben’s brother needed help with a construction project. Since that is what my husband does well he stayed and helped him out. His brother wanted to pay us something for his work and asked us if we would like a red eight-passenger van! It was perfect for us! It wasn’t new, but it was what we needed. And it was FREE!
Fast forward a few years and a few more babies. That red van was at maximum capacity after our sixth child was born. We loved that van. It served us well, but it would be too small for our family with number seven coming.
.
We knew that God wasn’t about to stop taking care of us. He’s a good Father. We placed our trust in Him and knew that He would fill our need since He was the One who was giving us another baby!
It is an exciting life trusting God. We knew He was up to something, but we didn’t know what! While driving around the countryside we noticed a car repair lot with a big white van parked nearby. It obviously belonged to someone, but we turned in and had a look in the windows. It was a hotel shuttle van with a high roof, middle isle, and stair steps into the side door. *sigh* “Wouldn’t it be nice to find a van like that sometime? Wow. So nice!”
A month later my husband, Ben, saw it still sitting there so he went in to ask about it. Just that day the owner was frustrated with the van and told the mechanic to just get rid of it for him. Did he have an asking price? Ben inquired. Yes, he did. We bought our dream van at 20% of the value of the van!
Fast forward another few babies. I am now pregnant with our tenth child. When our new baby arrives in September we will have filled up our 12-passenger white van. It only took us 12 years to do it!
We are happily living our lives knowing that God will take care of all of us. Life is exciting!
JENNIFER TORKELSON
Corinth, Kentucky, USA
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Ben and Jennifer with their beautiful children: Stephen (12), Mary (11), David (9), Amy (8), John (7), Juliet (5), Bella (4), Daniel (3), Josiah (2) and new baby boy due in September.