We live in the last jungle village on a discontinued logging road that has not been maintained for many years. There are some very muddy places where even motorcycles have a hard time getting through.
Our partners, Trevor and Judy, were scheduled to fly out to town in order for Trevor to have his bi-monthly checkup with his ear doctor. Gene had lost a large filling and after more than a month with a hole in his head – ah, tooth – decided it really needed a dentist’s care – so a trip to town. However, the NTM plane was grounded waiting for parts to arrive from the States, and wasn’t expected to be up and flying again before November. And, our team truck, which is being converted to a mud vehicle, was (and still is) out in town waiting for overdue parts from the States so the conversion can be completed. So Brian, our pilot, came in his 4×4 big-mud-tire off-road Landcruiser to bring us supplies and also to take us all out to town. It only takes 20 minutes to fly out to town, but via road it is a two day trip.
Brian made it okay to our village. He got stuck once going down a muddy hill, but was able to get unstuck without too much trouble.
Then we all headed back out the way Brian had just come. The Landcruiser forded the river no problem and moved along nicely until we hit a section of “road” a few kilometers long with lots of deep mud holes. It churned it’s way along until – it came to an abrupt stop with both differentials hung up on hard ground and the wheels spinning in the mud.
We unloaded a hand winch, cables and chain. Hooked up to a tree about 100 ft ahead of the Landcruiser and Trevor, and Brian, and Gene took turns with the back-breaking work of levering the winch. We’re talking about a vehicle that weighs about 3 ton! They dragged the Landcruiser ahead inch by inch. After an hour of digging and winching and spinning wheels we had made good progress, but there was still a long ways to go and the men were getting exhausted.
Then, suddenly, a bunch of motorcycles arrived! Loaded with mostly believers from our village – about 15 people. They were on their way to a meeting in the lowlands. Some got behind the Landcruiser and pushed. Most grabbed ahold of the cable attached to the front of the Landcruiser and pulled. Within seconds it was on high ground. The guys told us to go ahead, and they would follow on behind to help if we got stuck again.
For such a large group like this to travel together to the lowlands is unusual. The chances of this happening at just the right time to help us are pretty slim. So was this coincidence? We don’t think so. We think it was help arranged by our heavenly Father. We thanked the guys profusely for their help. But, we also thanked our Father who knew our limits and had already arranged – perhaps days or even weeks ahead – for help to come along at the right time.
Isn’t it encouraging to see how our loving, heavenly Father takes care of us? Let’s thank and praise Him.
Please PRAY that the parts for our “mud” truck would arrive soon. We need it for hauling cargo from our airstrip that is 7 km away from our village. And, please also PRAY that the plane parts would soon arrive and be released from customs quickly so that the trip to town is back to an easy 20 minutes instead of two days via road – some of which can only loosely be called “road.”