New Bus Fund to
Purchase another mini-bus to use in the Windward Bible Church Bus Ministry
We currently have one vehicle that we are using in the Bus Ministry of
Windward Bible Church. It is a 19 passenger mini-bus. It is a red
Toyota 1999 HiAce that has around 175,000 miles on it.
1999 Toyota
HiAce 'Bus'
(Japanese right hand drive vehicle)
It is powered by a 2000 cc engine that has about 175,000 mile on it, which
is not bad for this model. It gets 15 to 17 mpg, which is also not bad when
you consider the loads we carry.
Thanks again for those that helped us get it. We praise and thanks the Lord
for it!
It has been a marvelous tool for ministry since we received it in June of
2005
It is designed to carry 18 passengers plus the driver comfortably. The
chassis is heavily constructed and does not sage under the heavy loads. We hope to get many years of
good service from this vehicle.
This bus has been providing good service, with the
exception of replacing the radiator a few months back. We received this one in
2005 as a result of two gracious donations. It has been a tremendous blessing to
us, and our folks.
Last year we sold our old white mini bus. It was just like the red one,
but it was a 1991 model with 360,000 plus miles on it. It was worn out, looked
very bad, and required much maintenance. We did not get much out of it, but it
was enough to help with some immediate expenses we encountered on furlough at
the time.
Since the fall of 2007, we have had to make two or three trip for some
services, both in bringing people to services and taking back home afterwards.
This requires us to leave home 1 to 1 ½ hours before services to pick up
everyone, and we often start ten to fifteen minutes late due to having to wait
for some. With two buses, Linda and I both can usually leave home about 45
minutes before each service and get be back early enough to start on time. We
also like to have a time of casual fellowship after each service. But because we
know that we will have to make two trips, we must leave with the first load
almost immediately after each service. This hinders the sense of church family
and growth of our church. It also means that we get children home later that I
would like on Sunday and Wednesday nights, since the children must be up very
early the next morning to catch their buses to school. There are also those
occasions when we could have a flat tire or encounter other problems that could
leave us and our folks stranded with no way to get them home with only having
one vehicle at our disposal.
We would like to get another Toyota HiAce. If we cannot get a
new one, we would like to be able to get one
that is no more than 4 to 5 years old. I would also like for this one to
be a diesel instead of gasoline. Diesel is more durable and economical to
operate. We can get a good used bus here for $13,000 to $15,000 (US$). A new one
would cost $35,000 to $40,000. Though we would obviously like to have a new
one, we would be very happy and thankful to get a used vehicle with 100,000
miles or less on it. A used vehicle is more economical to insure (about half the
cost), but a new vehicle would be likely more economical to operate for the
first 3 to 5 years with no expected parts cost under the warranty period. After
that, the operating cost would be the same as a used one.
Thanks you ahead of time for your prayers regarding this
need.
You may contact us directly if you would like to help.
Click here if you would like to
make a donation through our website.
Thanks ahead of time,
Walter Robinson II
Pastor of Windward Bible Church
& Webmaster of LCM
Revised:
January 09, 2008.
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