car lost and found in PA

In September our 1993 mini-van became our first vehicle to roll over to 200,000. With as many miles as we drive in a year, it should have been inevitable. But it wasn’t. When we sold our factory ordered station wagon after 11 years, it had only had 195,000 miles. Our used compact car gathered another 75,000 miles under our ownership, but was far short of 200,000.
Our first mini-van was going strong until it hit 135,000 miles. Then the engine ground to a halt in a grocery store parking lot. Mechanically it was downhill from there. At 190,000 miles its transmission froze up on our Christmas trip to Indiana. We sold it for a couple hundred dollars and bought at ’93 red mini-van with 35,000 miles on it from a car rental service.
I was quite determined that this vehicle would make it to 200,000. I fill it with gas before it gets to close to empty, change the oil regularly and once in a while I even wash and vacuum it. Since we put 35,000 miles a year on it. I have become great friends with the quick oil change mechanics.
I really intended to have a little party the day my car turned 200,000 but it was carrying my husband to Indiana, West Virginia and home.
Last week he took the mini-van to carry our exchange student’s exhibit to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Philadelphia. She flew. My husband picked up a couple other student’s towering exhibits and drove. He wanted to take our more gas efficient station wagon, but realized its limited space could damage the displays students, parents and teachers had spent hours and hours building and decorating.
Saturday evening he left the car in the hotel parking lot and collapsed into bed. Before dawn he was up ready to correct one part of the exchange student’s display. He walked down the silent halls of the motel to its parking lot.
The car and all three exhibits were gone.
He called me at 5 a.m. Sunday morning for the car identification information. As I leafed through the file of papers on our vehicles, he sighed, “The mini-van will be easy to replace compared to those exhibits.”
After we hung up, I sent e-mails asking for prayers that God would intervene. At 7 a.m. my husband called back to say that the police had found our mini-van parked at the side of a nearby grocery store. The lights were on, the locks ripped out and the ignition casing broken but it was driveable and most importantly the exhibits were still there untouched. The police had spotted the car at 11 p.m. noted the license plate and waited to see what developed.
I guess after the thieves hot wired the car and drove off, the stopped, turned on the lights, took one look at the 225,000 miles and left to get a real steal in a car.
Whatever, we are glad that before we spoke, God had already begun to answer our prayers. The students had their exhibits. My husband had a way back home. and I still have a chance to see 300,000.