Close Encounters with an RV

Thanks for praying for our safety as we travel while on home assignment. Your prayers were heard and answered last Friday. That morning after dropping the kids off to spend some time with grandparents, we were on our way home. Interstate traffic was busy. We were in the midst of passing an RV when it started to come into our lane, it then veered back and so we thought that the driver had seen us. The next thing we know the wall of an RV is back in our lane and trading paint with us, and we are being pushed off into the median at 65 miles per hour. It happened so fast there wasn’t even time to honk the horn. Rick managed to bring the car safely to a stop in the grassy median. When our heart rates returned to normal we were able to drive over to the right hand shoulder to inspect the damage. The RV had pulled over as well.

To add to our challenges, our fellow travelers were from Canada and spoke only French. Unfortunately for me, my French was more than rusty and I kept wanting to say things in Melanesian Pidgin or Lusi. The good news was that they were traveling with friends who helped interpret. Apparently while we were passing them on the left, another vehicle was coming down the on-ramp on the right and it wasn’t yielding! The RV folks were between a rock and a hard place.

Would you believe that no one was hurt? That was the biggest answer to prayer! The most major damage was that the right side mirror was broken off and there were some scratches on the car. We have to give thanks to God for watching over us and protecting us, even here in the States. A police report and an hour later as we were headed down the interstate again, we realized just how much God was watching out for us. The median where we were able to pull into and slow down was one of the most level places that we saw on the rest of our journey – no culverts, no guard rails, no steep inclines. Not only that, but while we were sitting by the side of the road waiting for the police to show up, we watched a state maintenance vehicle going down the median picking up trash and debris, so it is truly amazing that we didn’t hit anything.