The scooter that love bought

This past Sunday was a powerful one at our church. Consider the following as part of the planned schedule:

• Baptist Collegiate Ministry praise band led worship
• 2 reps from the International Mission Board spoke
• I preached in the Life Essentials series – topic: Satan & Sin
• Lunch meeting with the 2 leaders from the IMB and Journey’s leadership team
• Cookout and kickoff of our fall small groups that evening, combined with a baptism (3 kids, 1 adult!)

It was such a wonderful and joyful opportunity for our church and guests to celebrate the presence, power and rule of Jesus Christ. We laughed, cried, and witnessed everything from drumming praise of Joe Matthew to the immersion of Taylor James.

Yet, that was not all the day held for me. After I finished teaching and sharing some announcements, Jeremy took the microphone and said there was one remaining surprise.

Now, I had already begun to wonder what was going on earlier when my best friend and college roommate and his family showed up for worship from Arkadelphia. My parents appeared right as the worship service started. On top of that, David James, the collegiate ministry team leader for Arkansas Baptists also “happened” to be in attendance.

Jeremy invited all of these up to the front and asked for me to return. My gleeful wife was beaming. Something was definitely up, I wisely surmised.

Imagine my stunned response when they presented me with a check – a love offering collected from the church and friends – in the exact amount of what my new-to-me scooter had cost. I was stunned. To top it off, so were they when they had realized that the amount they had collected EXACTLY matched what I’d spent on the scooter. 

I was moved deeply. With their gift, I was able to pay off the scooter yesterday! It was a huge blessing for our family. The depth of love and support that they all showed was deeply humbling. I wondered afterwards why it is so hard to be on the receiving end of someone else’s unreserved appreciation? 

So, this is the second scooter that love brought to us. I am deeply thankful.

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New wheels (again)

Many of you have followed my Moped Saga. It began last year with the attempt by my family to be a one-car family due to finances (can we say gas prices?). After successfully parking my Nissan for a month without any use, we sold it to some friends. We were given a 1988 Honda Elite 80 scooter, and it became my primary mode of transportation, as well as an endless source of ridicule from folks in the community. That is, until gas went over $3.50/gallon. Then we started seeing other mopeds in town, and folks began to stop and ask me how much gas mileage mine got.

We christened the scooter as “Ghost” and all was well in the world. Well, until a picture of Ryan and I on Ghost showed up on a homosexual website. That pretty much stunk. Ryan is still a little gun shy about mopeds now. He breaks out in a cold sweat every time someone says “scooter.”

Ghost became a welcome addition to the family, and we all enjoyed it. A scooter in a town of our size (about 9000) is a fantastic money saver and a source of endless fun and enjoyment. In spring, it’s truly amazing to drive down city streets and drink in the smell of budding flowers and freshly mown grass. Roadkill aroma is another story.

Then came the unthinkable – Ghost was ripped from our lives one evening as crass crooks thought they needed it more than we did. It was stolen from our carport (and there are three motion-sensor lights back there!). The police came and filed a report, but that was the last anyone around here saw of Ghost.

We tried – hard – to make one-car, eight-legs work around here but just couldn’t do it. I have been researching and looking for a replacement for a while now. I established the Pastor’s Scooter Fund and raised $140 – enough for a wheel. So a bargain was what I was hunting for.

Lo and behold, I found a 2004 Honda Elite 80 in Little Rock at the Kawasaki dealership. It had been traded in on a motorcycle. After some quick questions, I bought the replacement moped sight unseen over the phone. They delivered it Saturday! And it has a windshield! You know how you can tell a happy moped owner? Bugs in his teeth. This will be a welcome addition.

There have been some tune-up issues related to it so far, but we are thrilled and grateful. Hopefully, we can pay it off in the next six months, but we are now much more mobile than we’ve been. I’m so grateful for all the friends who have transported me around town when I’ve been without the vehicle. Tracy, Jeremy and Trey come to mind. TJ has let me borrow his truck several times. And thanks to all the Ghost Hunters… Michael being the new President of Ghost Hunters Anonymous. Thanks, everyone!

Now for the big announcement… the shiny black Honda’s name is…. drumroll please… the Batmoped! We wrestled with “Shadow” as an option, and that may become a nickname, but for now, watch out! The Dark Knight/pastor/graphic designer/Mac Daddy is back on wheels!

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Scooter life

It’s been a crazy past week here at the Noble household trying to get our school routine down. Car-pooling, kids’ activities and sports, photography shoots, meetings and out-of-town trips have taxed our one-car, no-scooter strategy. We’ve put it off as long as we can, so…

This weekend we’ll be doing some serious scooter shopping. My Pastor’s Scooter Fund only netted about $140 to date, and we’ll be using that and most likely financing the rest. We can do one-car-one-scooter. We just have failed at doing one-car-eight-legs.

Rest assured, I will rig up some kind of remote explosive device on this scooter that can be detonated through my iPhone. So any thieves better think twice about stealing this one. It will also come equipped with a seat that can be remotely activated to release booty bugs that will crawl into one’s booty and cause lifetime, irreversible damage should someone ride it that is unauthorized. Oh yeah. You think I’m kidding…

And then I’ve also finished inventing a helmet that will suck all oxygen away from its wearer. 

Too bad I wasn’t prepared with Ghost.

I don’t know what this scooter will be named, but we may have a Name That Scooter Contest locally. I’ll post pictures as soon as we’ve settled on a purchase. We’ve learned over the past two months that scooter prices have gone up. Go figure. If Exxon can’t get us, Honda will. Dadgummit.

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