The need:
We currently utilize a five-seater vehicle. This is enough space for our family plus one person. Now that the Bade family is gone, we find ourselves frequently needing more space.

We currently live 45 minutes from the city center, in a small village that does not have a sufficient population to support the social needs, language learning goals, or sharing goals of six STMs. As such, we have chosen to find housing for five of our six STMs in the city center. This is a “bigger pond” where they can have more varied relationships. At least once a week, the group comes out to our home for a meal. They take public transportation to do so, but once buses stop coming, we need to take them back into the city, which takes one of us at least an hour and a half to do.

We mentor an Adventist church group of sub-Saharan African students in their relationships with God and their ability to share with local friends. At least once a month, they take public transportation to our home, where we host a longer church service. Oftentimes, we need to provide transportation back into the city, especially if people stay late into the evening. This often requires two trips into town.

Since we now mentor the church group and STMs, we no longer take Sabbath hikes in nature, since we cannot provide transportation for everyone, and we feel a responsibility to provide Sabbath support. Instead, we play Bible games in the afternoon and walk around in the city, navigating traffic and construction until we can find a park with some plants.

Having a higher capacity vehicle would both ease our transportation burden and also open up new possibilities for us to facilitate meaningful and restful activities with those we are mentoring. We borrowed a 12-seater from a fellow worker of another denomination during the STM orientation week, and it was a wonderful blessing.

The goal
Buy a lightly used vehicle, ideally with 9-11 seats, such as a Renault Trafic, or Hyundai H1. If one of these cannot be procured in a reasonable amount of time, then we would opt for a new seven-seater, such as a Dacia Lodgy/Jogger. Several neighbors have larger vehicles—the Lodgy in particular—and we don’t feel it would make us stick out in any way, but it would make sense for our activities.