“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
Jerry and I are converting a school bus into a tiny home on wheels! This isn’t a new thing in our lives – we have been researching and planning for over a year and we actually began the conversion process several months ago – but we only recently began to share the process. The response from friends and family has been wildly mixed – some think we have lost our minds and others are living their dreams out vicariously through our adventure. And an adventure it is! This project is unique, difficult, frustrating, and exciting all in one. But the best part of the story for us is that we believe we are following God’s plan for our lives in this season and we love watching Him at work.
Building a bus requires planning ahead and thinking through each step in advance. Even though we are nowhere near ready to build the bathroom, we realized that we needed to know what size shower we would use before building anything else. The drain has to work around the wheel wells and fuel tank, so the placement of the shower base determines everything else in the bus. We have been discussing all kinds of solutions, but they are expensive and will still need to be modified to fit into a bus!
Yesterday, we set out to visit a truck salvage yard in search of a seat for the passenger (another thing that will determine placement of other things!) Unfortunately, the salvage yard didn’t have what we needed, so we decided to make use of the trip by checking out the Habitat Restore. It was near closing time, but we quickly browsed the store and a young man that worked there asked if we needed help. We explained that we were looking for shower stalls and he directed us out back to see what was in stock. It only took a moment to realize that all of their shower stalls were too large for the bus, so we made our way back in. He checked on us again and asked if we found what we needed. As we described our bus project, he immediately agreed that they had nothing that would fit.
Jerry and I continued to browse – we are looking for lots of things right now – and suddenly the young man reappeared with a bewildered expression.
”Are you faithful people?” He asked. “Do you pray? Who is this bus for?”
We weren’t quite sure what this kid was asking, but Jerry replied, “Yes we pray.”
“The bus is for us,” I answered, “But we are hoping it will include a ministry, so I guess it is for God too! Why?”
The boy still looked incredulous. “Because a man just pulled up out back and he is donating a shower the exact size you are looking for!”
Jerry and I chuckled and followed him out back to check out our new shower. We are always in awe of God’s provision – but not surprised. He has a way of showing up at just the right time. We were blessed by the shower – but the best part of the whole experience was watching the faith of the young man that discovered it for us! As he helped us load the shower into our car (remember we weren’t expecting to buy a shower stall that day!) I reminded him that if God provided the shower then He would certainly make a way for it to fit – and it did!
In my Instagram post, I noted that we must be building the bus for God – or maybe He is building the bus for us – but I truly believe He is building this bus for His work and for HIs glory. We just get the privilege of participating!
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28