Fridays are usually my day off. But every Friday looks a little different depending on what time of the year it is. If Davis is in school, then it's most often date day for Laura and me. If Davis is out of school (current state), then it's Family Fridays.
Eleven days ago, that Friday was different all around. I had scheduled a golf tee time with some friends for Friday morning. Yes, I sought permission from the family. :)
Needless to say, I don't play much golf so I was really looking forward to hitting the links especially since a friend gave me a new driver and three wood before we moved from Ohio. I was ready to break them in!
One of the men in my foresome mentioned to his wife about playing golf with me so his wife jumped at the opportunity to contact Laura and see if she'd like to go shopping. Well, Friday was here and it was time for the fun to begin. I left for the golf course and Davis and Laura would soon head out too. I remembered joking with the golf group if we should stop and pray for the wives as they were out shopping and had taken not only a pick up truck but an enclosed trailer.
About noon, while on the back nine, the text messages started flying in. Laura had found a couch for Davis' Den. "It's a great deal" Pictures were coming in as well. So, I did the smart thing and asked questions. Okay, maybe it wasn't the best thing to do. :) However, I asked the most important, would it fit down the steps to Davis' Den as there is a very small corner to maneuver at the top of the steps. "I believe it will." I even asked my playing partner to look at the photo and see what he thought as he knew the stairs and corner I was talking about.
"We can re-sell it if it doesn't fit." So, I gave in and told her to purchase it. Now I was ready to see if it would fit.
Later that evening, we asked some friends to go out for some ice cream so we could conveniently mention we'd request their presence at our house to assist in getting the couch in the basement. Well, once everyone arrived back at the house, Comedy Central broke out as we tried to get the couch around the corner and down the steps. I gave it an 18% chance of happening. The others guessed a little higher. however, after 20 minutes, we threw up the surrender flag. It wasn't budging!
What does one do when the coach that was a great deal and would fit into the space doesn't do what one thought it was going to do? You list it all over Facebook and ask those same friends to repost it! :)
For the next 36 hours, we walked around the brand-new couch as it sat right in the middle of our entry foyer.
There weren’t a ton of offers but then on Sunday morning I received a message from a gentleman who told me he was interested in the couch. I was ready to wheel and deal! Only problem was- he didn’t have a truck to get it. So I finally sent a message back and told him I’d include delivery in the price.
Sure, I didn’t want to borrow a truck and drive to Mason 50 minutes away to deliver a couch. However, this is where things got interesting.
Now enter - a foosball table - scene two of the story. As we seek to furnish Davis' Den, we decided to go with a couch first then save up for a game table of some sort. Well, in my listing of the couch, I had seen on Facebook a great foosball table as well as an awesome ping pong table for sale. Both items were from the same seller. Literally minutes before getting up to preach at the first of two services, I sent a message to the seller of the tables and asked him for a price of both of his items. Fast forward now three hours later (after speaking), I checked my inbox and the couch guy was ready for delivery and the game table guy only had the foosball table left. With some quick thinking along with Laura, I told the foosball guy we'd take the deal.
Our Sunday was originally going to be relaxing but instead, it was to borrow a friend's truck and trailer (the same friend who transported the couch at purchasing;-), then drive to Mason and deliver the couch. Our agreed upon price was $90 over what Laura bought it for just 36 hours before. However, they were still getting an awesome deal as we saw it on sale for $200 more online. When we arrived to unload the couch, he told me he didn't have change so keep the extra $10... so we netted $100.
Now it was off to buy the foosball table for agreed upon price of $120 (up on the northside of Cincinnati conveniently). We arrived at this beautiful home with a view like you've never seen. Wow! The people informed us they were downsizing so hence all their basement stuff was going fast.
As we were loading the foosball table into the trailer, the son of the house used a "Christian-ese" word and I asked him if he went to church. Right away, he began telling me of the brand-new church plant he and his family were a part of locally. I was able to share how God called us recently too to relocate. What a wonderful family they were.
As we were about ready to pull away, the father and I spoke for a couple minutes about ministry and church life. It was great to hear how God has used and is continuing to use their entire family. He reached in his pocket and said that he couldn't keep all the $120 from the sale of the foosball table as a fellow friend in ministry. Can you guess what he gave me back? Yep, a $20 bill. Now you do the quick math: $260 purchase for the couch, $360 re-selling, $100 profit, then a $120 foosball table for $100. Yep, we now have a free foosball table.
We are thankful for God's way of providing for Davis' Den. It was awesome to walk Davis through the whole process and for him to recognize the blessing given to us.