My old van.

With the advent of a new van in my life I thought I should tell you about my old van. It will always be special to me.

It was June 2001. I had been chaplain for the fire service in Dunedin since 1994. In that time they had had a lot of industrial unrest. I had been a busy boy and people often just let off steam to me. I used to drive an old Mazda Bongo deisel van but it got so rusty that it did not get a warrant of fitness. I was confined to using a car. I do a lot of stuff for Habitat for Humanity and other projects so I was missing my van incredibly. Driving out of the firestation yard once I noticed a nice little van in a garage there and coveted it. "Gee that would be handy!" I said to myself.

The Sunday after that I came in from my office on to the church platform to take the service and I noticed four firemen, most of whom I knew never frequented church, sitting in one of the back rows. They said to me after, "Your facial expression said, 'What the f*** are they doing there?'" At the end of the service we have announcements and one of the firemen came forward and addressed the congregation. He said that they had had to put up with a grumpy chaplain since he had lost his van. They had appreciated me as chaplain so they had something for me outside. They led the congregation out to the footpath where there were more firemen waiting along with some brewery people. There on the footpath was the little white Townace van I had coveted. They presented me with it. They had taken up a collection and bought this van. Tidied it up, fixed the brakes and they gave it to me. I was absolutely blown away. For years afterward I would be driving the van and still find myself amazed at this gesture. One of them said something very significant. "This gift is from your flock outside of the church."

Eight years later that van has done a power of work and is a bit knocked around. The motor is damaged and economically it is not worth fixing. I have bought a new one but I felt a tinge of sadness this morning, walking past the old one, that was such a special gift, to drive my new one.