Buying and registering a vehicle in America can be tough to navigate, regardless of where you come from. But when you are from a foreign country and don’t even speak the language, tough can quickly become nearly impossible.

Fortunately, volunteers like Pastor Ted Wuerffel are available to help, making the process a little smoother—and opening up a new world of possibility—for the New Americans CFNA serves.

When Andy and Betsy Sell decided to sell their 2009 Ford Focus a couple of months ago, they told Pastor Stanish Stanley they wanted to open up the sale to CFNA families in need of a vehicle. Around the same time, Eric Mukindi and Flora Muvara, a married couple from the Congo, came to the Peace Center with the hope of buying a car—a necessity, they felt, for securing new job and educational opportunities for them and their three children.

Pastor Stanish connected the family with Pastor Wuerffel, who helps with pre-exam driver’s testing at the Peace Center and had assisted another South City family with their car registration. Pastor Wuerffel spent a day walking Eric and Flora through the Missouri Department of Transportation forms for the sale and registration of the vehicle.

But the whole process, like many legalities, turned into more of an ordeal than the pastor had anticipated. After waiting in the Maplewood DMV License Office, the trio discovered that because Eric and Flora rent their home, own no other vehicle, and legally own no property in general, they could not provide proof of paying city property tax. They needed a waiver, so they and Pastor Wuerffel headed to City Hall to get one.

This, too, took several hours to play out because Flora does not yet have a driver’s license, Eric is legally blind, and the two have different surnames—in the Congolese culture, a woman does not take the last name of her husband when she marries.

These unusual circumstances initially prevented the two from registering joint ownership of the vehicle. But with Pastor Wuerffel’s help—and persistence!—the couple was able to arrange a somewhat convoluted but valid way to ensure that they both had legal rights on their car’s paperwork.

Once the registration was finalized, Pastor Wuerffel spent even more of his time teaching Flora about the basics of car ownership and handling.For Pastor Wuerffel, the most rewarding part of the experience was “to know that [Flora’s] ability to drive and helping [the couple] get into that good used car opens up many doors for them… It’s almost an essential thing in America to have personal transportation.”

If you have a car to donate or sell at low cost, or if you are interested in helping CFNA families navigate the legal system or learn to drive, please contact CFNA at mail@cfna-stl.org.

By Samantha Hoyt Lutheran Young Adult Corps

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