A Welsh pastor waited and saved for 20 years to buy the classic car of his dreams. Now he has decided to give it away to raise funds for charity.
Clive Owen, pastor of Wellspring Christian Fellowship Church in Langstone near Newport in South Wales, and married with two daughters and four grandchildren, had vowed never to sell the 1971 Gilbern Invader Mark II he bought in Bournemouth last year.
According to the South Wales Argus, just 287 models of the Invader Mark II were made at Gilbern's factory in Llantwit Fardre in Pontypridd. Launched at the 1970 British Motor Show, the Mark II featured an improved front chassis design, with modified suspension locations, and the Watt's linkages were replaced with Panhard rods.
The name, Gilbern, combined the name of co-founder Giles Smith, a butcher from Church Village near Pontypridd, and that of Bernard Friese, an engineer from Germany and former prisoner of war.
The company was founded in 1959 and the cars were considered expensive for the time. The Argus reports that because of VAT being put on kit cars, the price went up and finally, production stopped in 1973.
Mr Owen, who has been "born again" for 33 years and earlier this year raised £1,000 for charity with his grandson by climbing the "three peaks", Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell, in three days, paid £3,600 for the car 14 months ago.
It is now worth between £8,000 and £10,000. He wants offers of £10,000 or more to raise funds for three charities. Eden Gate is a homelessness and drug and alcohol rehab charity in Newport, there is also a Uganda charity, Life Ministries Trust Kampala, supporting 125 churches plus schools and hospitals, and the third is Shevet Achim, a UK charity dedicated to saving the lives of Arab children, mainly from Gaza, Iraq and Syria, born with congenital heart defects by funding their treatment in Israeli hospitals.
"As we speak there are two Syrian babies that have come through Jordan to Israel and are having their operations this week," he said.
He had waited two decades to buy the car and when he purchased it, vowed that he would never sell it. He told Christian Today: "I am not selling it, I am giving it away, to anyone who will give me £10,000 for the three charities I support. I will be heartbroken to lose it."
His mind was made up on his latest visit to Israel seven weeks ago, when he was at the main hospital in Tel Aviv. A little baby from Syria had just come out of the operating theatre. "As I looked at him he just gave me the most beautiful smile. I thought to myself, I've got to do more for these children. I thought, what do I love more than I love the life of a child? The answer was, nothing, not houses, cars or reputation, nothing. I went home and went walking, and thought, I will give the car away.
"I love that car. I waited 20 years for it. But if we don't practise what we preach, they are empty words. Christmas is a greedy time. We call it greedmass. On one side of the line, people have more than they want. On the other side, they have nothing. At this time of year we must take stock of what we do. If we say, all for God, it must be all for God. If one person in the world realises by my selling my car that perhaps they can do something good, sell something, give something away, then it's been worth it. My heart will rejoice and I won't be sad."
