Rats, shopping centers and smoking headlights

Friday, Sep 26th,

Good news and an answer to prayer! A team of Dutch people raised enough money to purchase a vehicle for Temba and the ministry here! This is so huge and such a blessing!!! We hopefully will have the vehicle within the next 2 weeks!!

Oh, and as long as Temba's car is repaired, we are on our way to Botswana for food and money:) God is good!!!

Saturday, Sep. 27th

The following recorded events happened in complete actuality and were not in any way embellished.

The day was looking quite promising. It was Friday and as long as Temba's car could be repaired, we would be on our way to Botswana for food and money. He was up at 5:30 to pick up the mechanic to come back to the house to put the gear box back in his Sentra. When he got there, the mechanic's assistant was running late. After about 1/2 hour wait, the assistant showed up and they were headed to the shop to pick up tools. When they got there, it was locked. So, they waited again and after another 1/2 hour wait, they were able to get the tools and head back to to fix the vehicle. The only reason we were pressed for time was because Temba had to meet to police at 9am to get clearance to drive the vehicle. Well, at about 10:30, the car was done. Temba headed for the police station and prayerfully hoped that they would clear his car. He came back at noon. They didn't clear it for Botswana, only for Zimbabwe roads. This meant we basically could ride to the boarder, leave the car there and hitch a ride to Francistown, Botswana. Sounded like a good option as the only other alternative was to stay here and go hungry. On the road we went.

About 45 minutes into the trip, I happened to look over at Jason who was sitting next to me, and next to his right shoulder was a big, hairy rat who was making his way along the windowsill. I'm sure many of you can guess my reaction. So, Yes, I screamed. Multiple times. Apparently they were blood-curdling screams, but I think some people were over-exaggerating the expression of my emotions. Anyhow, this rat decided to continue journeying along the car's windowsill toward Temba's right shoulder. He and Julie were still trying to figure out what was going on and why I appeared to be in some terrible state of distress. Jason, as usual in these types of situations, remained completely calm. Anyway, now Temba looks over and realizes he has a 5th passenger and says, "oh my goodness", tries to grab the thing and chuck it out the window. He was sadly unsuccessful. Now, our new four-legged beast is making his way along the dashboard and heading for the left side of the car, which is where I am of course. I don't believe I was thinking clearly in my state of panic, however, what else would any wife do in this situation, but jump right into her husband's lap. I don't believe Jason really appreciated this especially since I was still screaming at this point. Well, the rat finished his venture by heading through a hole in the back of the car where the speaker had once been. We quickly covered what we hoped was his only route of escape. Everyone now was laughing, except me. I actually didn't find it funny until hours later.

We arrived at the border about 2:00, parked the car and stood in line for about an hour. Temba actually found a way to get us through the line more quickly--I'm still a little unsure how, but it was great! We got our passports stamped and I still think perhaps we were supposed to pay for entry visas. I have no idea. No one officially said we had to, so we were fine with not doing so.

Now, we just had to find a ride the rest of the way, since the car was parked on the other side of the boarder. There weren't any buses available and it is very common to just hitch a ride with someone. This is not common to me, but Jason and I knew it was our only option, so Julie, Temba, Jason and I hopped into the back of a covered pick-up truck. It was quite the ride, and the whole time I was thinking how crazy it was that we were actually doing this, and I never would even think of doing this back home. Only in Africa!

We arrived safely. Thank you God! Francistown is so different from Bulawayo. It is clean, booming with cars and people, and very well established. All the shops look full. People are dining out at rather nice restaurants. It was an amazing contrast from what we have become accustomed to over the last week. It was a welcome sight.

Temba quickly got in line for the ATM machine. The line was several store lengths long, and probably most of the people were from Zimbabwe. By the time Temba got up to the ATM machine, the guards were announcing there was no money left. No money! Jason and I just sat and prayed that somehow God would make a way. We had come all this way and had to get food and money because we had no money to eat there, stay in a lodge or drive back home. And, we had to get back to the border by 10PM before it closed. It was now 6. Well, the guards told Temba to go to another bank ATM. He did and his card would not work for some reason. Because time was running out, we all just prayed in faith that somehow, somewhere there would be an ATM with money. So, we decided to start our grocery shopping at a store called Pick and Pay. It was a breath of heaven. The shelves were full and there was so much to choose from. It took us about an hour and by the time we were finished, Temba had arrived with our money. He had gone back to the original ATM machine and the bank was loading it back up with money! God answered another prayer.

We loaded all our groceries in a cart and got a Taxi to take us to Temba's uncle's house. He had to pick up his bag of tools. We almost didn't go because time was running out. We then drove to the bus station and found the last bus going back to the border. We had to load all of the groceries on the trailer and just prayed none would be stolen. As we were driving back, Julie looked at me and informed me that they had forgotten to buy gas and oil for the car. The big concern was that literally there was not enough gas in the car to get home. There was no turning around and no way to purchase gas. Stations and few, most don't even have gas and even if they did, they are closed by now. Time to start praying again! Jason and I were literally laughing at this point because it just seemed natural that yet another thing would go wrong. We weren't too worried. God had gotten us this far and had answered so many prayers; I knew somehow He would come through again.

We arrived at the border and waited 2 hours in line. We were all pretty exhausted as it was about midnight now. We finally got through and in the process we met a man in line that we decided to take back with us as he needed a ride. The blessing was that he lived in Botswana and was able to claim all of our groceries as his, which meant that we did not have to pay import duty! Hurray for saving some money. When we got back to the car, we checked the oil level and there was certainly not enough to safely drive back. Julie went and asked some people in the parking lot if they had any oil that they purchased and if they would be willing to sell it to us. They did! As we were waiting for the oil, I heard something leaking out of the front of the car. Turns out, the waterhose had burst. Not to worry because the man we were taking back with us was a mechanic and we had tools with us because Temba had picked them up from his uncle's house. Perfect! They managed to fix the car and now the only problem was finding gas for the vehicle. We were about 110K from home and Temba was pretty positive there was not enough fuel to make it home. No one seemed to have fuel to sell us, so we all prayed that God would extend our fuel so we could make it home. We had no other choice but just to drive and pray we could make it. Just before heading out, Julie noticed that smoke was coming from the headlight switch. Temba unhooked the switch, which obviously shut off the headlights and there was no way we could drive back in the dark with no headlights. This story seriously seems unreal at this point. Anyhow, somehow, Temba managed to fix it and we prayed again that we could make it home with no more problems.

It was a long ride home, let me tell you. I was sandwiched in between Jason and our new friend. All of us had groceries on our lap and I had some underneath my feet. There was no room to move and it was hot! The air conditioning doesn't work and the windows don't roll down. Fun times!

But, we made it home by 3am. The fuel lasted all the way, we had no more car problems, and all was good. God is so, so good. He answered all of our prayers. Since being here, our confidence in God is growing so much. We literally take things minute by minute and pray our way through. God always makes a way. Always. He is fully aware of each of our needs and never gives us more than we can handle. In the midst of frustration, we can just feel His grace falling on us. This has been an amazing journey so far, and we've only been in Zim for a week:)

Well, never before did it take me 15 hours to get groceries. Never before did I have to depend on God in such a way. Never before did all of those events happen all in the same day. Oh my! Never again will I complain about shopping at Meijer. I think I'll rather welcome it:)