We set out this morning for Iringa, some 8 hours from Dar. I don’t know about you, but before I drive I always pray that God will protect us and other drivers. I did that this morning. We know how dangerous it is to travel African roads and that there just aren't service stations in every town.
We left the guest house in Dar and drove over and picked up our supervisor, Brad. We were on the road by 8:30AM. It was already 80 degrees. By about 15 miles down the road the a/c quit working. No problem as we just rolled down the windows. After about 2 hours of driving we came upon an accident with traffic backed up. We sat for a while, and sensing it was going to be longer, I shut off the diesel engine. Well, when it was time to go it wouldn’t start. Wouldn’t crank over at all. Didn’t have the ‘click, click, click’ of a bad starter, just nothing. I knew that the truck (Nissan Patrol) had been worked on with a rebuilt alternator and a new battery. After the usual looking under the hood, examining fuses, and general ‘kicking of the tires’ we decided to push start it. Thank the Lord it worked.
About an hour later I notice that the tachometer and the speedometer are doing weird things swinging back and forth and the digital odometer is flashing. Not a good sign, even though the engine seems to be running fine. About then we come across another accident, what looks to be quite serious, with a motor cycle flattened in the road and a SUV off the side of the road. Just as I put on our 4-way flashers, our engine stops. I try restarting while coasting and it is d-e-a-d. All I hear is a strange electrical sound somewhere under the dash. Brad gets out of the car and runs back to the accident area telling others that ‘my friend is a doctor’ while I am trying to get out of the way of the hordes of people that are running up to where the accident occurred. Now, one does not usually want to be in such a situation and at times in Africa, there have been mobs that turned on vehicles and their drivers if they think you were responsible, or even if you just happened to be in the area. I look back and Brad has disappeared into the crowd. I can’t get our truck to do anything and I proceed to look under the hood again.
Meanwhile, Brad is ‘ministering’ to the driver of the other SUV and finds that the motorcycle driver dove off his bike and had only a scrape on his leg. The bike was flattened and the SUV had a flat. It was repaired by the mechanic driver (many people in Africa have drivers – our mission doesn’t do that). The police simply say that since the bike was moved off the road, there was nothing they could investigate and left. Then the most amazing thing happened. The owner of the SUV and his driver/mechanic drove up to our truck and proceeded to help us sort out the problem. Took our battery out and exchanged it with one of theirs, diagnosed that we had a faulty shorted out 4-way flasher relay, push started our truck, put our battery back in, and then paid a ‘helper’ for his work and left. He simply said ‘God has protected all of us’ and left in his SUV! What an amazing way in which God chose to protect and provide!
We made it to Iringa by 6PM. It is higher altitude (a little over a mile) where it is cooler than Dar. We are staying in a mission owned house. We unloaded our bags and the groceries we had brought and then headed over to the Eardenson’s house for a delicious supper, topped off with home made apple pie and coffee. After an hour or so of delightful conversation including recounting how God has done amazing things in each of our families lives in the recent past, we headed back to our new home, tired, but so thankful that God has done amazing things to show us once again how awesome He is.
Tomorrow we meet with the language school director and begin our 16 weeks of school. Brad is going to help sort out the truck issues with a local mechanic that our mission knows, and later we will walk to town to have a look at the market area (where you buy fruits and veges) and other small stores.
What a day. God is good, all the time…
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