How To Arrange a meeting In Africa

I have never been known for my ability to hear. One of Bev’s favorite quotes is from the movie “Christmas Vacation.” "You couldn’t hear a cement truck driving through a nitroglycerine factory! And she is right. My ears are not what they used to be.

But the good news is that God can always speak louder than my inability to hear. As is being demonstrated to me this week in Mbale.

I traveled east to the town of Mbale to meet with three team members of KKAB (Karamoja, Kaboong and Beyond) who are under our NGO, when they returned from a seminar in Kenya. The other three KKAB members were driving down from Nabilatuk. Since Ryan was down for the earlier Pastor Conference, he decided to give me a ride and return by way of Mbale where Bev and our visiting friend Sam after their road their road trip out west would meet me and the KKAB team . We didn’t want to pay the fuel costs of taking a third vehicle since we were all going to the same place. Now with two headed southeast (Bev & Sam), two east (Ryan and I), three coming south (Miriam, Jean and Carina) and three pointing northwest (Tom, Simon and Summer) we would all arrive at about the same time in Mbale. This was going to be easy. Seldom had any travel plans for a coordinated rendezvous that I had engineered seemed so simple and perfect.

The first sign of trouble came when Ryan & I were delayed 1 ½ hours. Couldn’t be helped, we were waiting for some equipment for Ryan. Plenty of time. We still reached before noon. Meanwhile Bev and Sam left right on time. Their snag came when they shredded a belt in Soroti, 105 kilometers away. But God in his mercy put two mechanics who know me right on Bev’s path and got them on the road in an hour. God also didn’t let the belt tear on the 118 K stretch where there are no service stations. Thank you, Lord!

The south bounders were delayed when they assisted a friend whose car had broken down in the middle of nowhere. But they still made it.

However the same could not be said for the Kenya travelers. The bus company canceled the day bus and put them on the night bus instead. Only problem was that the night bus never came. The team finally showed up 24 hours late.

The next day Sam needed to catch the plane in Entebbe 6 hours to the west. We sent a message, actually dozens, to Tom and it was agreed that he would come to Jinja to meet Bev, Jean and I after we returned from Entebbe and the rest of Tom‘s group would meet in Mbale. As we headed out of Mbale at noon the car died. Now what? After several prayers Jean found a friend to get a special hire car to take Bev and Sam back to Jinja to catch another special hire to Entebbe. Jean and I would stay in Mbale to get the car fixed and wait with the rest for our Kenya compatriots to arrive. But God definitely said “No!” to letting the car run.

But God did allow Sam to make her flight, and let Bev get home late but safe.

As for me … well we are still working on that!