Not having my car around this week has given me lots of time to think about things. There are some hard decisions for me to make in the next year and they commanded a lot of my attention this week. One of the biggest decisions was where I would live after coming back from my first furlough.
I am planning to take a six month furlough in the United States in June of 2009. In April the lease that I have on the house I am currently renting ends. For the last year I have told everyone that I planned to move somewhere closer to the city when I came back in January of 2010. The plan is to live with friends between April and June. Or possibly rent the house on a monthly basis if they would allow me to do so.
There a few reasons why I want to move from my current house. The biggest one is because the area I am staying in is far away from where I minister. I drive forty five minutes both ways to get to church on Sunday mornings. This gets pretty expensive when it takes about $50 to fill up my tank. Thankfully my little car gets excellent gas mil age. The long distance makes it hard for me to spend time with friends because one of us will have to drive a long ways.
There is a positive side to my living in this area though. This is by far the cheapest housing that can be found anywhere. Normally a small house or apartment will cost $250.00 a week for rent. I rent a three bedroom house complete with front and back yard for $185.00 a week! If I do move to a closer location it will mean having to raise more funds. It will probably take at between $200.00 and $300.00 of extra support.
Right now I have two options about my living accommodations. Moving to a new location closer to where I am working. Or stay where I am and saving up money to buy a house. Renting a house for $250.00 a week will end up costing about $1,100.00 a month. That gets pretty close to the payment that you would actually make on mortgage! The problem is the housing market in Australia is worse than it has been in years. Every house is at least $200,000, and the standard interest rate is above 8%.
Right now my heart tells me to stay here in Melton for a few more years until the interest rate goes down (if it ever does!). That time will allow me to save up money for a nice down payment for a small home. But at the same time if my teaching ministry continues to expand I will find myself traveling more and more during the week.
It may seem strange that I am worrying about something that is almost a year away. I have always been the kind of person who likes to look years in advance. I am planning things in my mind that probably won't happen for at least three years (I wrote about it in the article “taking a moment to dream”). I would really appreciate your prayers concerning this situation, I want to make sure that I rely on God's wisdom instead of my own.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Losing My Freedom
In November I was involved in a minor traffic accident. Another car hit me from behind when I was stopped at an intersection. The result was a decent sized dent in my cars bumper. About a week after the accident I called my insurance company and they gave me the number of a repair shop. I brought my car by the repair shop in December and they told me it could probably get fixed in January. They ended up calling in March and scheduled to have it fixed on last Monday.
So I drove my car over at 8:00 Monday morning. Then I decided to walk the four miles back to my house since I needed the exercise. I was hoping that the car would be fixed by Tuesday since it would not take too long to fix the dent. But when I called Monday afternoon they told me the damage was worse than originally thought. So the car would not be ready until Thursday.
It may seem strange, but losing my car for three to four days made me very angry. I don't get upset about much because losing your temper doesn't help fix the problem, but not having my car until Thursday really frustrated me. Why would that make me upset? There were actually two reasons. The first was that I would have to ask other people to drive me to work on Tuesday and Thursday. Thankfully the missionaries who work at the college live less than five minutes from me, and were more than happy to drive me.
But there is another reason for my frustration and anger. For those three days I lost my freedom. I could not get into my car and drive to the coffee shop where I usually studied because it was too far away to walk. It wasn't really not having coffee that bothered me, but the fact that I couldn't get in the car and drive somewhere.
Not having my car has reminded me how much I love having freedom. The freedom to go where I want when I want to do it. Losing my car takes that precious freedom away from me for a few days. But all other types of freedom are precious to us as well. The freedom to make our own choices. The freedom to try doing things differently. Freedom to express our view on a subject even though people disagree with us. But is it right for us to act as if losing some of that freedom is the end of the world?
Monday night I went to a local grocery store for some well deserved ice cream. When I am driving it takes less than four minutes to get there. It took me about half an hour to walk to the store and back. Yes it was a little bit frustrating for the trip to take almost ten times longer walking than it would have been driving. But I lived through the ordeal. Walking to the store and back did not kill me, and it was actually kind of nice walking in the warm night air.
I called the repair shop this afternoon because it was Wednesday and I was hoping my car was finished. Instead they told me that my bumper had to be completely replaced, and the new part would arrive Thursday. That meant the car “should” be ready by Friday. So I will be making the thirty minute trip to the store and back for a few more days. But I am thankful to learn that it is possible to live without a car.
So I drove my car over at 8:00 Monday morning. Then I decided to walk the four miles back to my house since I needed the exercise. I was hoping that the car would be fixed by Tuesday since it would not take too long to fix the dent. But when I called Monday afternoon they told me the damage was worse than originally thought. So the car would not be ready until Thursday.
It may seem strange, but losing my car for three to four days made me very angry. I don't get upset about much because losing your temper doesn't help fix the problem, but not having my car until Thursday really frustrated me. Why would that make me upset? There were actually two reasons. The first was that I would have to ask other people to drive me to work on Tuesday and Thursday. Thankfully the missionaries who work at the college live less than five minutes from me, and were more than happy to drive me.
But there is another reason for my frustration and anger. For those three days I lost my freedom. I could not get into my car and drive to the coffee shop where I usually studied because it was too far away to walk. It wasn't really not having coffee that bothered me, but the fact that I couldn't get in the car and drive somewhere.
Not having my car has reminded me how much I love having freedom. The freedom to go where I want when I want to do it. Losing my car takes that precious freedom away from me for a few days. But all other types of freedom are precious to us as well. The freedom to make our own choices. The freedom to try doing things differently. Freedom to express our view on a subject even though people disagree with us. But is it right for us to act as if losing some of that freedom is the end of the world?
Monday night I went to a local grocery store for some well deserved ice cream. When I am driving it takes less than four minutes to get there. It took me about half an hour to walk to the store and back. Yes it was a little bit frustrating for the trip to take almost ten times longer walking than it would have been driving. But I lived through the ordeal. Walking to the store and back did not kill me, and it was actually kind of nice walking in the warm night air.
I called the repair shop this afternoon because it was Wednesday and I was hoping my car was finished. Instead they told me that my bumper had to be completely replaced, and the new part would arrive Thursday. That meant the car “should” be ready by Friday. So I will be making the thirty minute trip to the store and back for a few more days. But I am thankful to learn that it is possible to live without a car.
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