The BUV (Basic Utility Vehicle) has been fixed back to its original form (from a trailer to a vehicle!) and the first driving lessons of the Mwinika believers have begun!
The BUV was sponsored to help transport sick people to and from the local clinic and town hospital (about 1 hour’s drive from us). Until now, Francois has spent many hours and lots of gallons of diesel in driving people back and forth. The BUV will therefore not only serve a whole Mwinika community’s sick, but will also help Francois to focus his efforts on discipleship, teaching and lesson development.
Eventually the BUV will become the property of a Mwinika believer(s), but since we have only a few believers yet, we have decided to train the 4 guys who form part of the Bible lesson development team: Vrydag, Amer, Swarthand and Salim.
But, as Phil (our colleague) rightly said: It will have to go a lot worse, before it will go a lot better! 🙂
So, the driving lessons started… Over all, it went well, despite Vrydag driving right through our fence and the BUV stalling often! 🙂
For these guys who have never driven anything except a motorcycle – and then never faster really than crawling pace on a two track road – this was a whole new and very exciting experience! The vehicle has in fact an engine no larger than a motorcycle and it’s top speed is 40km per hour, but learning to steer a vehicle with TWO back wheels proofed to be a real challenge! The guys tended to want to follow the bicycle tracks of the previous person using the road… The lessons drew a crowd! For the first hospital runs, Francois will accompany the guys… Half the time he was hanging on to the frame of the vehicle, resulting in very sore muscles at the end of the day. 🙂
Pray for the right people to be trained as drivers so that Francois can soon focus on his main roles in our team.