In fact we’ve been home for a few days now. All of us struggling with getting our body clocks back to match our local time zones. But let us back up a little.
After 9 days of very hard work, we were able to hang up the shovels, put down the saws, pack away the tools and get ready for Sabbath – our second Sabbath in Bere’. The Lord knew what he was doing when he asked us to rest one day out of seven. Six days of labor had made all of us very tired. Along with missing our families, we were ready to come home.
Unfortunately, we were missing one thing – a method to get back to the airport. James had gone to NdJ for meetings, and on the return, the truck had some mechanical difficulties which forced James to remain in NdJ an additional day for repairs. So instead of James returning to Bere’ on Friday afternoon, he left NdJ Sabbath morning. He was able to stop along the way at one of our churches and attended SS and Church.
This was a miracle provided by God because when he stopped, he noticed a leak in the radiator of the truck. Upon further inspection, a large hole had formed and was expelling water and stream at a goodly rate.
James was able to jam a piece of rubber into the hole, but that was only a temporary fix. Every few miles he would have to stop, find a source of water (well, ditch, what ever), fill his drinking bottle and pour it into the radiator. The rubber plug was getting looser, so James and the other rider in the truck began chewing all the gum they could find and then jam that into the hole.
Well, a trip that should take between 7 and 8 hours actually took close to 15 hours. There were 6 very happy people to welcome James back to Bere’ – until we discovered why he was so late.
Upon further inspection, it was determined that the radiator would not survive a return to NdJ in its present shape, so a search was commenced to find suitable radiator fixit ‘stuff’. Yes – we were not in a position to be selective – anything that might hold was considered. But once again, the Lord provided for our needs – at the time of our need.
All of us had been in the closet looking for things all week long and none of us spotted the ‘radiator gunk’. This is a special sealant designed specifically for leady radiators. Was it there all week? We don’t know. Was it there when we needed it most – absolutely!
Jamie – our resident truck repair man to go along with his electrical and plumbing skills once again rose to the occasion. He mixed up the compound and in a matter of minutes had plugged the leak. We let it sit overnight and upon complete inspection in the morning found that for the most part the leak had stopped. But would it stand under pressure of a 200 mile drive in the heat and rough roads? Well, the Lord does not take a person so far and then drop him - - neither did He provide for us the radiator gunk only for it not to work. Oh, we took extra water with us in the truck, and we did add about 2 liters half way to NdJ, but we made it to the airport in good shape.
We even were able to get past the highway guards who gave us such a hard time the week before. This time, we learned that a little sugar goes a long way. It turns out the guards had a healthy sweet tooth and offerings of candy, gum and other such items was all that was needed for quick passage through the checkpoints.
In NdJ we went directly to TEAM for a quick shower and on to the airport because we had been informed that the rebels from the East where on the outskirts of NdJ. You know how news travels and how bad news usually gets blown all out of proportion. Well, that was the case here, but we did not know for sure and were not in a position to question conventional wisdom – so all 6 of us took our last Chadian shower in record time – and were off to the airport to wait out the ‘rebel attack’ and be in position to board the first plane out of NdJ.
We were able to spend quality time – 9 hours worth - in an airport with no place to eat, one bathroom without the necessary paper products for either end of the body, hard chairs, no air conditioning, and people going to and fro speaking a language we did not understand. But once again, the Lord provided us with a safe refuge and at 11:55pm (on time) our Air Bus 320 lifted off the runway and we were away from suspected danger and one our way home.
An overnight flight to Paris brought us to the City of Light in the Dark at 6am. And Paris was still foggy and rainy – just as we had left it the week before. We did find a place to purchase some snacks for breakfast. We ate as we discussed our week’s adventure. Each of us took time to record our impressions on Video that will become part of the official record of Bere Team’s adventures in Tchad.
Peter departed before the rest of us as he went a different way back to Seattle. We boarded our plane at the appropriate time and then we waited and waited for it seemed that not only was our truck from Bere’ to NdJ in need of repair but so was our plane from Paris to New York.
After a 45 minute wait we were once again airborne ‘over the pond’ to our home – the USA.
Due to our delay in Paris, we missed our last connection to Orlando. You see, the Lord had us wait at the airport in NdJ, so we would be in good practice to wait at JFK. We experienced another long wait – this time roughly 7 hours (but with all the pleasures of ‘home’ such as clean bathrooms, air conditioning, food, English speaking people. Our 8:30pm flight was full, but we all made it back to Orlando by 11pm and were finally in familiar surroundings and the loving arms of family.
Have we recovered - for the most part yes. Have our body clocks returned to be in sync with the local time – for the most part yes. Did any of us catch Malaria – not that we know of for we faithfully took our medicines while there and then gladly accepted the final treatment that James prescribed for us.
Are we ready to go back to Bere’? Not at this moment, but give us a few weeks or a month or two and then ask us again.
God was, is and is always good. He took care of our needs - - not necessarily our wants (we wanted ice cubes in Bere’, but they did not materialize). But through His blessing, we were able to accomplish pretty much everything we had hoped to and for all we know, the things that did not get finished – well, they were not in God’s plan to begin with.
So family and friends, thank-you for supporting us on our mission. Thank-you for understanding why we did call home more often. Thank-you for accepting that we wanted to go to bed early when we got home and seemed to get up way before the time we should. And thank-you the most for loving us, for caring about us and for keeping us in your prayers.
So long for now.
May God Bless us all.
The Bere Bunch 2006
