Things look different in the dark

I got up at four this morning because I was going to take my Nigerien friend to the bus station. It had been a short night because we had been at a send off for missionary friends who were leaving the country too. My friend was directing me down what she felt was the best way to the bus station and we were talking a little. I noticed what I thought was the shadow of a large pothole ahead of me and slowed down (mistake number one) to enter the pothole. Within inches and seconds I recognized my second mistake, the darker colour wasn’t a shadow, I was driving into a swamp of excrement that covered almost the whole road and was at least four inches deep (if not deeper in places). I was moving too slow and the sludge was too thick and slimy to plow my way through and so I was stuck within moments. I tried all the usual tricks of switching back and forth to try to gain some ground, but it was no use. Under normal circumstances there would be at least a few people around that would be willing to help me out by pushing , but at 4:30am the street was bare. So my friend and her two daughters that were nicely dressed to travel for the next 24hrs on a bus, got out and started pushing. With some prayer and some pushing we were out of the hole in less than five minutes (I was really amazed! God is so faithful!) and on our way again. As my friend recommended another route that ended up going through garbage sledge, her daughter in the back seat got a little concerned—I think that she was afraid that she wouldn’t be leaving Niger today as planned. Thankfully they made it to their bus on time and were relatively sludge free. I got home and told Dave that I didn’t want to minister to women any more, he said why because you don’t like saying goodbyes. I said yes, that and I don’t like getting up at 4am for bus runs and I really don’t like getting stuck in the back streets of Niger. Oh well, God gives us the grace for each day and I will continue to love and minister to the women that God puts in my path.

Please pray this week for the team coming from Canada, they leave Monday and arrive Tuesday July 27th---hopefully I won’t get stuck in the mud with them too. Pray also for the retreat that they are coming to help lead the following weekend.