better and newer

this was an exciting night for me. i hadn't led worship in a while and so i had this golden opportunity to stretch myself ministerially. i rode my bike to the train station got on the 1657 towards anvers central. this enabled me to get plenty of time to go over my songs i was leading before the encounter service.

the service went great and i sang my heart out. the service ended and i got back on the metro to head to central train station. took the train to the waterloo station and found that my bike had been stolen!

the old bike with the seat on back

i was crushed. it was only a bike but nevertheless i had some memories with this bike. i poured a lot of my guts and sweat into it. it is the bike i took dutch to school on in the trailer and the whole winter in below freezing weather i gave god an earful about how i needed a car and that me riding a bike was unfair.

it was the bike that we got the child seat for so that when #3 came we could fasten him in it and i would  ride around with dutch and tites on their bikes. i actually took dutch to school on the seat a few times because it was way easier to take him in the little seat than the trailer. he would wear his sunglasses, helmet and hold onto his backpack while i cruised the rue de la station towards his school.

so this bike had more memories than value and that made me a little frustrated. i remember praying the whole walk home from the station, "lord please just cause my bike to be in the closet at the apartment" (our apartment has a storage closet for bicycles).

the thing is that all the pieces that fastened to the trailer and the bike seat were ON the bike. now i have to hunt down the companies that sell the products to find the spare parts because we have the seat and trailer in the storage closet downstairs. so i was annoyed about this as well.

i tweeted it immediately when i got home (some of you may recall). i really went to bed that night with peace because i knew we were close to getting a car and so i was thinking of god's provision for this. the next day i awoke to amazing news of donations for a bike.

it is just like the old one but better and a newer model.
and here it is: