Praise The Lord For Drivers Education

I survived driving with Mark*! It's a T-shirt that I might need to have made up once I return to the United States. Maybe I should make one up for Andre and Warren too, since they also survived. This wasn't because Mark didn't try his best to kill us though. Over the course of the 6 days we traveled with Mark, Warren and I spent much time debating about whether Mark had ever driven before this trip; if he truly had a drivers license; and if he'd ever driven off a paved road before. I don't think we ever came to any firm conclusions but we were leaning towards saying no, no, and no. I could mention many of the fine points about Marks driving, but I think one story in particular sums it up best.

On our way home from Mbeya to Dar-Es-Salaam we decided to split the 17 hour drive back into 2 days, spending the night in a wildlife park at the halfway point. The second day we got up and decided to spend a few hours driving around the wildlife park taking some photos before we proceeded to Dar. (Does that qualify as work? Maybe, I once had a giraffe picture make it into the OMS Outreach magazine.) As we were driving through the park we came across a herd of buffalo. Mark had never seen buffalo before so he was quite nervous about the experience and he was eager to keep driving down the road. After assuring him that the buffalo would leave us alone if he just stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine he finally did so. But not without locking the doors first. It didn't last long though as Mark remained very nervous. We were soon making our way down the dirt road again where we happened across an adult male lion. Well, if the buffalo were scary I'm not sure what Mark thought about the lion. Fortunately for Mark, the lion was making his way off into the grass land to get away from the spectators so we didn't see him for long.

As we began driving down the road again the road began to get a bit more bumpy and something inside Mark's head told him we should turn around and head back. The only problem was that on either side of the road was this deep sand which doesn't work so well for turning around. To his credit Mark did try backing up for about 10 seconds but it quickly became apparent that backing up wasn't one of Mark's better skills. (Put one check in the column betting that Mark had never driven before this trip) So Mark, against all good judgment decided to attempt turning around. Somewhere around point 20 of our 40 point turn we got stuck.(put another check in the column betting that Mark had never driven off pavement before) The lion we had seen was only a few minutes down the road, hidden in the tall grass, and we were suddenly forced to exit the vehicle and push, and push, and push. By some miracle of God we got the car unstuck. By another miracle of God we didn't become kitty food.

I wish I could say that was the worst of Mark's driving adventures but it wasn't. Sadly, I don't have enough space or time to write of everything we experienced in his vehicle. The next time a missionary asks you to pray for safe travels, remember there are many other people out there just like Mark driving in third world countries. As Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, Pray without ceasing!!

*names changed for security reasons

The friendly lion we saw shortly before getting our vehicle stuck in the sand