Leaving for Missions!
On Wednesday 29 April 2009 I arrived at our church very late, as I still needed to help Miriam (from Lesotho) to find my address where she was going to leave her car. We decided to press my van and trailer into service as the minibus was very full and the trailer that it was towing was loaded heavily already. We only left at around 4:00 p.m, two hours later than scheduled, and we still had to fetch Cecelia. After all, she had our marinated chicken, which we were going to have for lunch the next day!
We got off to a good start, with Mandy as my passenger. The intention was for her to swap with Travis at a later stage so that she could get to know the rest of the Mission Team. We encountered heavy traffic near to the airport, but that was not much of a problem, as I knew that once we hit the open road for Middleburg the traffic would reduce.
Everybody was in high spirits, and I took the lead, with Wally and the rest of the people behind me. The van performed well, but as it is powered by a diesel engine it was belching black smoke every time I was challenged by an uphill climb. Mandy and I settled into the journey, and passed the time by telling stories of other Missions trips I had undertaken so far. I remember also that at one stage I pointed out to her how the vegetation changed and became lusher as the journey continued and we came closer to the coast.
Disaster
Just a few km before one gets the turn off to the Sudwala Caves disaster struck. My windscreen was suddenly covered in muddy hot water and I knew from previous experience that this was not good. We pulled off to the side of the road and called Wally on my cell phone and told him what had happened. I thought that a radiator hose had broken, and that it could be simply remedied at the next service station. When he arrived we topped up the water bottle with water and continued slowly, as Nelspruit was not too far. 14 kms out of Nelspruit I was forced to pull into a service station, as we were losing water. Thankfully, the engine temperature gauge was normal.
Overnight Arrangements
Christopher said that he knew some friends in Nelspruit who could help us, so he contacted them. Yunus and his sons came after a short while. They decided to leave my car at the service station for the night, while Wally and I guarded it and slept in the Minibus. Yunus kindly towed my trailer to his place, and offered all the Missionaries accommodation for the night. Early the next morning Wally and I removed the radiator and drove with it back to Yunus’ place.
The Good Samaritan Family
Yunus and Fatima were very hospitable to us and offered us all the help they could. It was even more remarkable, as we were a Christian missionary team, and they are of the Muslim faith. They spread mattresses on the floor, and everybody could at least rest for the night. The next morning, Fatima made us some delicious scones and samoosas for breakfast. Yunus took me to a radiator repair shop that he knew, and they repaired the burst radiator for me, at the cost of only R100. Wally and I refitted the radiator and we drove the bakkie (van) to Yunus’ place to meet with the rest of the group. On the way there, the temperature gauge climbed a bit, so we decided to leave the van in Nelspruit at Yunus’ place while we continued to Mozambique with only the minibus and a very heavily loaded trailer. Yunus undertook to have the van mechanically attended to while we were in Mozambique.
The Return Journey
After a very successful Missions Trip, we fetched the van from Yunus and he assured us that the van was repaired as best they could, and that it would probably take us home. Boy was he wrong! Just before Ngoma, the van overheated again and started spewing steam from the radiator. We pulled off, and I asked Christopher to accompany me while I tried to reach the nearest Service station. We allowed the minibus to continue on its journey as some people had to go to work the next day. We on the other hand, could not make it, and had to pull off on the side of the road in the darkest of nights. Fortunately our cell phones were working and I could phone Margie, my resourceful and loving wife. She arranged for a breakdown truck to tow us to the nearest service station, about 10 km away. There we waited for my friend and missions partner Andre Le Battie to arrive from Johannesburg (quite a distance!), and he towed us using a Y frame. The night was cold and damp, and I developed laryngitis as a result of being in the open. Christopher and I were only lightly dressed, so we suffered a bit. We had pies and sandwiches for supper while we waited for rescue.
The Second Disaster
Just near to a place called Ogies, just as we were settling in to a nice little trot, Andre’s van sustained a blow out to its rear right wheel. Unfortunately, his spare wheel was flat, so there we were, stuck again! Thankfully, Stan Weimers, another good friend of mine, works nearby at a coal mine, and we were able to ask him to come and rescue us. He came within ten minutes, took the flat spare wheel to a service station and had it pumped up. He even gave us his spare wheel in case we ran into trouble again.
Home at last
We arrived home at around 9:00 am the Monday morning, hungry, dishevelled and very tired but triumphant. God was with us all the way, and even though we had so many trails we were in high spirits. Christopher was remarkable and maintained a smile throughout the ordeal.
The aftermath
My car is still at the mechanic. It has been diagnosed with a blown head gasket, and we had to part with a lot of money to recondition the radiator and to buy a new cylinder head and head gasket, along with all the bits and bobs that go with it. Vincent (or Shoes), the mechanic, is confidant that my car will be on the road again. I will soon have to think of buying another car, as this one has over 600 000 km on the clock, and is over 10 years old.
In all adversity, know that God is in control, and He will never leave you nor forsake you.
God bless.
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