Another season, but God's provision continues

Brian here again: For the first time since last winter, the outside temperature will drop below freezing tonight. The weekend saw a notable drop in temperature, and today it was very chilly despite the fact that the sun was out (which is always a noteworthy event in England). So perhaps we're getting the first of our truly winter weather. I have a feeling that this will be a colder winter than last year - we'll see. It's nights like this that make you very happy to have such a snug, warm flat.

In other news, we are very happy about our new couch!


Thanks to the flash, the photo doesn't really do it justice. It's actually more tan than golden. The below photo is a little more accurate.

No, it's not what some people would call special, but it is truly a gift from God. Jordan and I have been wishing for a couch since we got here. We're used to snuggling up together and reading or watching a film, but to this point all we'd had to sit on were the two beauties in this photo from last Christmas-time:


They were fine - more comfortable than they look, really - but we wished for a couch. The problem is that the furniture market is pricey here. Even beat-up stuff is nearly always well above our price range. So we made due with the chairs until now, except for an interlude of a couple weeks in which we tried the "couch" that the university offered us. It definitely would've been more appropriate in a doctor's office and didn't make for good snuggling, reading, or movie watching. Here's another photo of our new seat:


It's a bit narrow as couches go, but if it was any bigger it wouldn't fit in here well, so it's just perfect by our standards. Much thanks to Anthony for helping me move it - I'm sure we got a few odd stares as we drove it home, with the majority of it hanging out the back of our tiny Citroen AX.

The best thing about the couch is that it was free! Someone wanted to get rid of it and had offered it to some shops around town, but for whatever reason no one wanted it. So they posted it online and we got it. Having seen far, far worse specimens in shops for £50 and more, I can only conclude that God caused others to turn it down just to give us a gracious gift.

What's more, this is the second time in as many days that we have received something very valuable for absolutely nothing. Just yesterday, one of our friends gave us a brand new winter coat for Iain, and it is just the right size for when he outgrows his current coat in about a month. It was an incredible, thoughtful, loving gift.

These past few months have been very trying financially - we have had to pray many times lately to ask for greater faith in God's promises. But over and over again, God has sent things like this our way.

Another example that comes to mind is our car. We never thought we'd be able to afford to buy a car here, but we did in early July for the incredible sum of £100. Here's what it looked like just after we'd bought it:


I should take some updated photos now that I've fixed it up a bit. Just for comparison: I sold my bike a couple weeks ago for that exact same amount.


What an incredible gift to have a car for such a price! We've put some more money into it for some repairs, but I've done almost all the labor myself (including patching it together at times using such ordinary household items as extension cords and rubber door stops). And because of the repairs we should actually be able to sell it for more than we paid for it.

All these things remind us: we might not know for sure where we will be in a year, but today we have every single thing we need and much more. Thanks be to God that although we often forget him, he never forgets us.

I'll try to remember to post some photos of Iain in his new coat.