To Live Beautiful

Monday, November 3

DISCOVER :: The Power of Craigslist

I just sold my van on craigslist today. Dave & I bought a "new" van just over a week ago ('00 Mazda MPV) off of craigslist and were wondering what to do with our '00 Toyota Sienna that had 284,000 miles on it and didn't pass Tennessee emissions testing (and has a driver's side window malfuncion, and leaked oil and the light on the odometer doesn't work and ... you get the picture.)

We were going to give it to the church - and use it as a tax write off. And then Dave's computer bit the dust. Or so we thought. We later found out it probably just needs the batteries replaced. But before we realized it was only a battery issue, I was consumed (maybe obsessed?) yesterday with the idea of having to get a new computer (we are Apple people and buying a new computer is a bit more expensive yet worth EVERY penny). I was wondering where the money was going to come from.

I took a nap while my daughter took hers (normally don't do that.. i like to stay busy) - and had a dream. It dawned on me that we had a van that we could sell and could use the money to buy a new computer. So I had a little conversation with God and it went something like this,

"But I was going to give the van to the church... someone might need it!? I mean, I don't want to back out on what we planned on doing. I still love you and trust you... "

I totally got a peace about selling the van on craigslist. God doesn't want to take things away from us; He has all the resources in the universe to hand out. God just wants us to be good stewards of what He has given us.

So once I came to that conclusion, I headed straight to craigslist.com to place my free ad. Within 20 min I had a guy already interested and within the hour, I had another lady interested. Over the next few hours I had more than 7 people ask about the van. I told them straight up what was wrong with it. I met with a couple this morning, they test drove it, looked everything over and gave me $100 less than the asking price (which I agreed to, of course!). I sold it for $1000 and they understood that it might possibly need $2000 worth of work done in the near future (and it had high milage... )

The coolest part though, is that he was probably going to give it to his daughter, who has three kids and a small car that had lots of problems. So I got $1000 for a new computer (we'll sell dave's old one on craigslist), the buyer got a great deal on a used van, and his daughter gets a much needed Toyota van for Christmas. The new owner said, "The van's already green, we just need to put a big red bow on it!"

THAT's the power of craigslist and being a good steward of God's resources.

Goodbye Sienna... Be good to that mom and her three kids!