I was waiting until the right time to actually begin any real conversion efforts on the bus but we had to abandon that plan. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). After having the new “openable” windows installed in Columbus, OH we have had bad water leaks. So we took the bus back to the shop that did the work for them to remedy the situation.

We drove home on a beautiful day which ended in a heavy downpour. To our disappointment there were still leaks. Since leaks mean rust and corrosion we had to do something. I felt it was likely that most of the leaks were coming from the windows because they didn’t have a uniform thickness of wood on the inside for the retaining ring to press against, only some temporary shims. That resulted in lack of uniformly tight pressure of the window’s flange on the outside against the skin and hence places where the water could seep in.

So I felt the Lord’s direction to go ahead and take everything out (again…ugh) so the walls and ceiling can be stripped. (We are going to try to work around the refrigerator and the couches to avoid having to take the windshield out. We aren’t too good at that, yet anyway.) After stripping it down to the metal frame we will have a rigid foam insulation sprayed in place.

Next change of plans… As the children were taking down the ceiling they discovered something else. We had paid to have each roof a/c unit specially framed out with welded metal tubing to maintain the integrity of the bus, since they have to cut the “backbone” of the bus to install the roof a/c’s. Long story shorter, we were disappointed to find that those special welded frames fell apart in the children’s hands when they took the ceiling down. “Thank You, Lord, for another chance to show Yourself mighty.”

In Christ Jesus,
Steve