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December, 2006

FAITHLESSNESS...The Van Repair Story

I sent out, what for me, was an urgent prayer request that our van would be repaired well from a bruising it took from a cookie company truck about 3 weeks ago. I didn't give much info in that email update, so thought I would fill it in a bit here.

When the accident happened, Connie was shopping inside a store. She was leaving when a truck drove by and told her that she had been backed into. So, she began searching for the guy who did the deed. When she found him he said that he had been looking for her. Who knows if that was the truth, but from that point forward he was a model of honesty.

Connie called me on the cell phone from "across the bridge" (which is the tough part of town) where he and a worker from the store had taken her to the truck driver's company. They did not want to involve the police - possibly because he didn't have a licence or who knows what. The law here apparently allows for either reporting the incident or working out the payment details with the involved parties.

I was pretty uptight, though Connie was doing fine. She got the names and numbers of 3 or so people who saw it happen...so we went forward with the truck company planning to get the work done on the van.

A couple days later the drive showed up on campus to look at the tailight that got bashed so he could get a replacement. A couple days later he showed to take the tailight and send it to Blantyre to find a replacement.

For me things got more and more uptight and when a couple days later they said they wanted to take the van in to do the repairs, I was beside myself with faithlessness! We didn't know where they were taking it, how long it would really take (it is very Malawian to tell a person what they want to hear - "only 5 hours my friend") and if the van would ever appear again!

Connie finally settled me down with the exhortation that God was still on His throne and it was only a car. Those of you who helped pay for it may be less sure of that, but she was right!

Well, we got the fatefull call late in the afternoon saying that they needed it until the next day to finish the painting. We were living off the car we had been borrowing and really wanted to keep away from it - don't like breaking other people's stuff. But, we agreed not knowing where the van was or if it would be safe.

Yesterday, the van appeared on campus looking absolutely fantastic. They used quite a lot of filler stuff apparently, but it looks new. Ah, my faithless heart. Connie noted the other day that the way we deal with the little things doesn't bode well for anything big coming down the pike!

But, God is still on the throne...
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December 21, 2006 | 0 Comments | View or add comments
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Waiting...waiting.

Today we got the wireless internet running on campus.  ABC has been talking about it for 3 years and got a grant from a Rotary Club in California to cover that cost plus new computers for the labs on campus.  Note: the students learn keyboarding on electric typewriters!  But, things are getting slowly updated here.  But, it takes time!

In this culture, time is slow and patience is imperative.  The fact that nothing starts on time except classes and chapel at ABC is possibly due to lots of factors.  I wonder if the old adage that "Americans have watches and no time and Malawians have no watches and lots of time" harkens back to when that was actually true.  Because of many factors it was unlikely that any appointment would take place at the given time as any number of things could happen before the meeting was to take place putting off the starting time.
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December 16, 2006 | 0 Comments | View or add comments
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