By any road

The over-night trip to Semliki Safari Lodge was, as in past years, exactly what we needed. Peace and privacy, sun and a small pool, the raucous sounds of monkeys in the trees outside our spacious tent in the night, morning birds and coffee on the porch, long talks,excellent food presented in civility. And this year the treat of going with Skip and Barb Ryan. Who would have believed that thesepeople who seemed a short step down from deity when we were in college 25 years ago would now be spending a retreat sharing focused attention, love, concern, and prayer . . . would now be our friends?Amazing.

The trip home, as it often does, threatened to thoroughly erase the restoration of the almost two days away. All was well until the very top of the mountain switchbacks, when our right rear tire blew out.  Scott got the truck to the side of the precarious road and jacked up in a few short minutes, he's had so much practice. Then we found outthat not one, but BOTH of our spare tires were flat. These were tires that had been repaired, one in Kampala at the premier tire centre, but inexplicably over the journey on the roof rack had lost their air.

Even for us this was a new situation: six tires, only three usable, so stuck. It was not long before the first truck stopped and let Scott add on to the mountain of matoke and clutching passengers, with the two spares, to the nearest village (about a half-hour away). Meanwhile the Ryans and I sat on the tailgate reading books in the dusk of the deserted mountain road, until Pat and Nathan came along, also returning to Bundibugyo from an EGPAF meeting in Kampala. To make a very long (HOURS) story shorter, Barb and I ended up getting a ride home with Pat, in the dark but at least in time to get my kids from the Pierces and to bed. Nathan and Skip waited for Scott to bring a spare back by motorcycle in the dark, discover that our new jack was not functional, wait for another good samaritan to lend a second jack, change the tire, have it go flat again, get a the second spare on, have the car fail to start, finally get it started, have the second spare begin to leak air, and at last have the angelic driver of the good samaritan truck wedge a pebble between the tire's tube stem and wheel rim that maintained enough air to carry them home at about 10 pm.

This morning I read this quote" The Lord is glorified in a people whose heart is set at any cost, by any road, upon the goal which is God himself. A man who is thus minded says, 'By any road!' Amen, but our road has quite a few bumps, jolts, mires, and treachery. And flat tires, dust and delays. Praying we can stay on track.