Africa by the Numbers

2 – Flat tires in Burundi

2,000,000 – potholes hit before those tires went flat

11 – people who decided to accept Christ during our visits in Burundi

93 – orphans who welcomed us in Kenya

1 – African Quaker who I met in Kenya

3 – numbers of times he told me that he hadn’t seen me "quake" yet

9 – Pastors that we visited during their training course in Burundi

5 – churches visited in Burundi

3 – hours spent touring the apartheid museum in South Africa

4 – Countries visited (outside of an airport)

16 – African countries that ECC expects to work in for 2007

100,000 – minimum number of times that I was called a “Mazungu”

1 – day spent in Rwanda

2 – days spent in Burundi

100+ – Mosquitoes swarming in my room in Burundi

5 – Mosquito bites from those Mosquitoes

0 – Mosquito bites that anyone else in our group received

5 – days spent in Kenya

6 – days spent in South Africa

3 – average daily banana consumption

6 – the most number of bicyclists I’ve seen holding on to any one truck for a free ride

9 – airports traveled through from start to finish

2 – small sticks of sugar cane eaten

116 – days until I return to Africa

On the Wings of an Angel

Last September, Dave and I along with a small team came to Burundi to visit churches. On that trip we hired a mini-bus to drive our team around and we noted then how rough the road conditions were for a 2 wheel drive vehicle to navigate. Although we didn’t have any problems, it wasn’t for the lack of opportunities. So you can imagine our surprise last week when our ECC coordinator John showed up to take us church visiting in his small Toyota Corolla.

As John got out of his car, Dave immediately questioned him about where we would be traveling and the suitability of his car to make the journey. John assured us that all the churches we would visit were easily reached with his car and that we had nothing to fear. Wanting to trust in John, Dave accepted his explanation and we were soon heading down the roads on our way out of town.

We should have known better not to so easily accept John’s explanation about the adequacy of his car. As we were making our way out of town, we came to a section of road that was being repaired. Normally (if there is such a thing in Africa) we would have waited patiently for a lane of traffic to open and made our way through the construction area. Instead, John was emboldened by the sight of an ambitious mini-bus driver to take a short cut across an adjacent soccer field.

John followed the mini-bus across the soccer field and we had almost scored a clear goal, when out from behind a nearby building stepped a police officer who quickly flagged us down to question our drive through the field. I’m not sure what John said to the police but he let us proceed after a few minutes of scolding. As we were making our way off the field though, the “little car that could” got high centered on a dirt embankment that surrounded the field so we all had to pile out of the car and push it to get it unstuck.

After the soccer field incident we quickly made our way back to the pavement and we all hoped that our excitement for the day had just finished. We were wrong though, as we’d soon find out it was only beginning.

The first church we visited was only slightly off the beaten path. A short drive down a dirt road between grass huts and across a grassy pasture brought us quickly to our destination. The second church was a bit more of a challenge as we dodged pot hole after pothole on a seemingly endless stretch of dirt “road.” It was the third church visit, though, which really put the poor little car through it’s paces and caused us to wonder if John had really believed what he told us earlier in the day about the easiness of our journey.

After winding back and forth and up and down the “roads” between a series of grass huts in a village we made our way down a walking path which led into the hills. The kids that came running out of the grass huts to see us seemed doubly excited for not only were they witnessing the rare occurrence of white people driving by, but I imagine they were witnessing the rare occurrence of anything driving by. I could see very little evidence that any vehicles (4 wheel drive or otherwise) had ever driven down these paths.

We continued on our way and John’s little car did a surprisingly good job. We crossed creek beds, straddled large ruts formed by rain storms, blazed through knee deep grass, and made our way up and down steep slopes. After nearly an hour of driving we finally arrived at the little church.

The people were quite happy to welcome us, and our time there was precious. As is the case in so many of our church visits, the mere sight of white people will cause villagers to show up at the church just to see what’s going on whether or not they are believers. Because of this, John presented the gospel in the native language and 10 people decided to accept Christ. It was a great experience to witness. (I’ll write more about this in the future)

Our trip home was much like the trip out. John’s mighty little Corolla got us back to town safely after a few more hours of driving.

The next morning John was scheduled to pick us up and take us to the airport. When he arrived we learned that we had been riding on the wings of angels the previous day. John told us how the previous night after he had dropped us off at our hotel one of his tires suddenly went flat. He replaced it with the spare and made his way home. The next morning when he woke up, another tire was flat. John had to borrow a spare tire from his neighbor’s car in order to pick us up that morning. At that point, there wasn’t a single member of our group who could deny that it had only been the grace of God which had allowed us to make it safely home the day before. The tires that had gone flat should have lost their pressure long before we made it home.