Lo, I will be with you always!

"Triple A" Tanzanian style! Gas tank repair with rope

I have been back from my trip to Tanzania for two days and I am dealing with the jet-lag and Malarone cocktail fuzz pretty well. Yesterday speaking with a friend I was struck by words that were coming out of my mouth as I told of the protection I had received during my trip, so I need to testify to God's grace:
First, you must grasp the seriousness of breakdowns and accidents even in "peaceful Tanzania". I learned of this by way of the news story of the week before...a bus had crashed in one of the villages and while the survivors lay bleeding and helpless, they were pillaged of all they had. In a more personal note, my good friend Emmanuel was in a motorcycle accident the day after I arrived. He was spared serious injury, but as the crowd gathered around him as he lay on the ground, his helmet was stolen and his keys from his bike...this happen just down the street from where I was living. But God promised to be faithful, and He was...four times over!

1) I had traveled out to preach in the village of Sikonge, a three hour trip on dirt roads that were OK since it was an election year. Never-the-less, we had no driver (who is actually a bodyguard/driver/mechanic) and a breakdown would have been very bad. We arrived at the pastors' house, and as I walked around the truck to get my bag, I heard a hissing sound...I looked down and saw a gash in the sidewall of the tire. When I put my finger on it, the hissing stopped. Somewhere on our three hour drive we had gotten a flat...and the tire carried us all the way to the pastors' front door!

2) In town I was traveling often on the back of a piki piki (motorcycle) sans helmet, doing pastoral visitations with a pastor friend. As we passed through the center of town, a bike cut right in front of us at low speed...we hit the bike, and the man was fine, but as soon as the accident occurred, the voices rose and the crowd formed...yet we slipped away as did Jesus from the crowd.

3) I was returning from preaching in Tura and Goweko, almost six hours by very bad dirt/sand roads, when all in the Land Rover had to "go did roots"...ie, use the "restroom"...or tree...as I walked around the back of the truck, I smelled gas. Looking under, I found that our reserve tank had been partially ripped off by a rut. It was hanging by one strap, the fuel fill line was spilling gas, and the connecting lines to the main tank were stretched. The driver tied it back on and it held the remaining three hours back. Praise God the tank did not rip off at the speeds we were driving!

4) ...lastly, my transfer flight leaving Dubai was an hour late. We were taxiing away from the gate when the pilot announced we were having some trouble loading the luggage. Just then 6 security officers entered the plane escorting a man who was having "heart problems" they told us and had to disembark the plane and claim his luggage. I am trained as a back country EMT, this man was NOT in cardiac distress...furthermore, every passenger on board had to identify all of their carry-on luggage. God's hand again was on us...

So when Jesus promised His disciples in the Gospels "Don't worry, I will be with you always, even to the end of days" He really meant it...and sometimes we are blessed to not only believe it, but to see it!
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