Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Bonjour,

Today is one of those days that we know that people were definitely praying for us.  Thank you for your faithful prayers for us.  They are not in vain!

Joe took the vehicle to the mechanic this morning.  They found that the springs on the fuel pump are weak and need to be replaced.  So, they had to go to Abobo to have the work done on the fuel pump.  When they arrived there, the man said that he rebuilds fuel pumps, but he did not have the tools to remove the pump from the vehicle.  He told them that they needed to go back to the mechanic, remove the fuel pump, and bring him just the fuel pump.

Joe had one of the mechanic’s apprentices with him.  As they were driving along, a parked 18-passenger mini bus suddenly pulled out, hitting the front passenger’s side of our vehicle just behind the front wheel.  It ripped the brush guard off of the other vehicle and really shook our vehicle.  Joe got out to survey the damage.  As he came around the back of the vehicle, a group of about 40 drivers came toward him.  The one who had hit our vehicle was yelling at Joe and grabbed him by the collar.  Joe grabbed the guys fingers and twisted the man’s arm behind his back.  While this was happening, some of the men were dragging the mechanic’s apprentice down the road.  The group of men were yelling at Joe and were starting toward him.  He still had the guys arm and told him that he should tell those men to back up, or he was going to break his arm.  The man started yelling for everyone to move back.  After a few minutes, everyone calmed down. 

Joe talked to the head mechanic on the phone.  He came down and surveyed the damages.  He told Joe that our vehicle could be fixed for less than $10 and that he should just let the other guy go because it would end up costing a lot more if the police came. 

While all of this was happening, a lady from the Anyama church was in one of the other 18-passenger vehicles which was passing by.  She called the national pastor and told him that she had seen Joe’s vehicle with lots of people gathered around it.  Max was trying to call Joe, but Joe couldn’t answer the phone right in the heat of everything.  When he could, he called Max back and told him that everything was okay.  Max had called Matt Litson.  They were both ready to jump in the vehicle to go help Joe, but by that time, everything had calmed down. 

When Joe got back to the mechanic’s shop, several men from the church were there waiting for Joe to make sure that he was okay.  We drove by the mechanic’s shop after church.  They already had the passenger door welded back in place and had beat out all the dents.

All of this could have ended much differently.  Thank you for praying for us!

The vehicle needs to pass the inspection tomorrow.  One of the side clearance lights got knocked off in the accident; so that will have to be replaced.  The fuel pump needs a few gaskets.  Hopefully that can all be taken care of in the morning and the vehicle can go for the inspection tomorrow afternoon.

We rode to church with the Litsons.  The attendance was down tonight, but we had a good service.  After church was over Gilbert told Matt, “Uncle Matt, I am ready to go now.”  Matt got a good chuckle out of that.

We had supper when we got home.  Then, we went over to the Litsons’ house for a birthday party.  Today is Joanna’s birthday.  Tomorrow is Meganne’s birthday, and Friday is Joe’s birthday.  So, we celebrated all three of them tonight.  Sarah made a cake for the girls, and I made a chocolate pie for Joe.  The children had a great time playing.  The adults had a good time of fellowship.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, and Danny

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