How do I begin describing that last couple of days?

I guess I should start with Tuesday the 16th. On Tuesday Steve was planning to drive to a city, I would tell you the name but they all sound the same so I can’t, he thought was farther away than it was. So we got up really early and were driving but 5:30. We got to our original destination by 10 am and we all agreed that we shouldn’t stop, just keep going. Then next city that we could find a place to stay at we reached by 3. There was a discussion in the car. Do we drive the rest of the way to Nampula or do we try and find a place to stay here or sleep in the car? It was a unanimous decision to drive.

Ok, if you have ever driven in Africa you know that you shouldn’t drive at night. Those of you who haven’t are probably wondering why. This is why; to start the roads are a two lane highway, people going the same direction with in feet of each other. I was trying to describe how close you get to other cars to my Dad and I said that you are kissing mirrors with the passing vehicles. I made Steve laugh because I was leaning away from the passing cars like that would help us miss them.

Back to the road conditions, driving during the day is hard enough because of the width of the road and the lack of pavement. Well, the dangers all increase because you can’t see the road anymore. There are no street lights anywhere. And to make matters more difficult, there is a whole lot of road construction right now. There are constant detours. I think we were on more detours then roads.

As I am writing all this down I have to thank God that we made it safely. It is only because of Him that we are here.

In the midst of all of this we got to stay at the Snider’s friend’s house in Dondo. Her name is Janine and she is doing amazing things in Dondo. She has helped to start a preschool and elementary school, a farm and a bakery. There are so many things. She was showing them all to us and each stop I thought, there is more! She is an amazing woman, doing amazing things!

Some of the pictures on this post are of the kids at her school. They were so excited to see us. I think I got the most hugs ever just on that one day. The kids are so friendly; they just run up and give you a hug. The frustrating thing was that I could not talk to them. I want so badly to be able to converse with the people, especially the children here. That is one of my prayer requests, that I will be able to pick up on the language and start to understand some of what is being said to me.

The drive becomes even more fascinating as we pull into a small town to get gas. People were pointing us to the gas station they thought would have gas and it didn’t so Steve used the spare gas tank he had in the car. He had already used the tank once when we had rolled into a previous town on empty. That was so amazing that we made it. I just kept looking at the gage and praying. Anyway, we were at the gas station with no gas and guy came up to the car and said that he has gas at this house but we would have to give him a ride there. Steve said "Noa Obrigodo" and filled what he could. While Steve was filling the car a tire blew out. Thank God it didn’t happen on the road. There would have been no way for us to fix it. The last flat the car got, when Steve was trying to fix it the jack broke, I think I wrote about that, so beside it being too dark to see on the roads we wouldn’t have been able to lift the car to get the tire on.

The guys got the tire on and we filled up with as much gas as we could and were off. After this stop Nampula was only supposed to be an hour and a half away. God is really testing my prayer life because we had no more spare tires and no extra gas. An hour passed and we didn’t see any lights coming from a city, an hour and a half, no lights, two hours and finally we saw the lights to the city. Those were two of some of the longest hours I have experienced.

All this to say, that because of God’s amazing protection, we have made it to Nampula safe and sound and will move into the house on Friday the 19th. I will tell you more about the house another day.

Thank you so much for your prayers and love being sent my way. I would love to hear from all of you. I love you all and will write again soon.