Bad news but many reasons to praise the Lord

I am still in the capital – unfortunately – because we had intended to be back in the village. I came to the capital four weeks ago to pick up the German short termer who will stay with me for the next six months. A week later we left for the village but had an accident after approx. 140 miles. One of the back tires blew out, and when I tried to stop the car we rolled and landed on the roof. Nothing happened to us – we hung in our safety belts and were able to crawl out of the car on our own without any injuries before the first helpers arrived. We were brought back to the capital the same day with all our luggage and left the car in the care of a friend.

Despite this bad news, we have lots of reasons to praise the Lord:

– I had bought two new tires only a week ago.
– We rolled fairly slowly and the windshield only started breaking afterwards (so nothing flew in our faces).
– The roof rack is very sturdy and kept the roof from caving in more (only slightly).
– Nearly all the luggage stayed where it was, only smaller things on the back bench flew around.
– Our director immediately took care to organize things.
– Several helpers stopped very soon at the site of the accident.
– Among them was a car with several mechanics from a neighboring country who had just repaired a truck.
– A Colonel and the former governor, stopped and offered his help.
– The mechanics changed the tire, turned the car back on its wheels and pushed it until the engine started again.
– One of the mechanics then drove the car with the broken windshield to the next town, while we were placed in two other cars.
– A long time friend answered my call for help and came, even though he had no car and it took him 5 hrs.
– His colleagues allowed us to put the damaged car into their garage, where it was safely locked up.
– The Colonel’s family invited us into their home, served us lunch and took care of us in many ways.
– A colleague followed us with another car (3 ½ hours’ drive), picked up the short termer and drove her back to the capital in the afternoon.
– The chauffeur of the Colonel took me on several necessary errands.
– Our friend stayed another two days in the town to oversee the repair of the car.
– His boss came in the late afternoon to see how things were and wanted to feed me supper.
– The Colonel’s wife made her car and chauffeur available to bring me and the rest of the luggage back to the capital the same evening.
– Two her employees traveled by bus to make room in the car for me.
– Our guesthouse made room for us and we were able to move back into the same apartment that we had left in the morning.
– We slept well so far and did not really experience any after-effects or real shock.

Altogether it is really amazing in how many things we experienced God’s grace and African hospitality at its best. Probably through this and because we did not have any injuries, we are not really suffering from shock. We are doing extremely well considering the circumstances. Praise the Lord!