You never know when life is going to throw something different at you. We have to learn to be adaptable to all situation. This is especially true on mission trips. If you have ever been on a mission trip, then you certainly understand what I am talking about. If you haven’t been, then you are really missing out on opportunities to grow. Today was one of those days. The plan was to leave by 8:30, go to the pre school and the dump, then drive down to Managua to the Hotel Barcelo. Nothing went according to plan except that we finally got to the Hotel about 7:40.
The hotel was about two and a half hours from where we were staying in the black jungle. But everything that we were going to, the preschool and the dumb were within about an hour of where we were. Well, we got up early and ate breakfast. We were all ready to get our luggage and load up when we heard that the Excursion van wouldn’t start. That was not good. We had battery problems with it the day before, and we were concerned about the way it was driving. To top that off, the truck that we had wasn’t running well either. We had to push start that one the day before. But it was a stick shift and was easy to push off. The excursion was a diesel, and there was no way to push start it.
So here we were, two and a half hours away from the hotel and civilization, out in the black jungle with a car that wouldn’t start. To make a long story Scott and Harry had to drive into town th get a mechanic. He spent most of the day trying to get the car started. Finally he took both batteries to be recharged and at about 4PM the car finally started. I’ve left out a lot of the details because there is no way I could do the story justice. However, we spent the day in the black jungle instead of the preschool and the dump. This is the second year in a row that something has kept us from going to the dump. We hiked the trails looking for monkeys, but we didn’t see any. We had lunch and walked around the grounds. Lacy and a few others rode horses again. The team did remarkably well. Everybody went with the flow and nobody got upset.
On mission trips, things happen. The excursion was still running rough, and we didn’t want to turn it off. We just wanted to go straight to the hotel, but we still had a long drive. Oh, I didn’t tell you that the gas gage didn’t work on the other truck. Driving it around all day rani it almost completely out of gas, Locally it was almost down hill all the way from the Black Jungle to the nearest town where we could get gas. So we finally got gas and got started to the hotel. Now I’ve said earlier how we have been cramped for space in the two vehicles. We had 11 in the Excursion and 5 in the truck. To make it easier, one or two of us have been riding in the back of the pick up truck when the weather was OK,
Tonight once we started into the city, Joseph and I were riding in the bed of the truck sitting on top of the luggage. We were doing guard duty to keep someone form reaching in and stealing a suitcase. It was pretty fun, except when we were stopped and street vendors would come and try to sell us something.. It really wasn’t two bad until we were on this steep hill at a red light and the truck died. It wasn’t getting gas, and wouldn’t keep running very long. We were close to the hotel, but very far. We were sitting there watching all these cars blow their horn and make not very nice gestures while trying to go around us, Finally we got the truck started and kept it revved up to about 2000 rpm minimum. We made it to the hotel, pulled into a parking space and the truck died.
We were 0 for 2 in cars. Neither one could be trusted. So tomorrow, we get rid of both of them. We are getting a 16-passenger van with a driver. Hopefully the last two days will be much better as far as transportation goes. It’s our fun day tomorrow and we are going to the zip line and the market. Every mission trio has days like this, when nothing goes right. The key is to roll with the punches and take things as they come. We did that today, and all is well. Tomorrow is another day, Let’s see what it brings us.
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