We are out with the car!

Yippee! We all felt like hollering for joy yesterday, as our family made it down from RV WITH the car yesterday!!! A big praise…we decided it was like the Israelites crossing the Jordan River…as we definitely had to ‘’step into the water in faith” ! We are really thanking the Lord today.

 

It’s a really long story! Friday the bulldozer made it up and worked past our car and our hopes soared.  We can see across the valley thru binoculars. But we were teaching Alfalit, couldn’t leave immediately, and kept waiting to see a truck pull up to Nep’s, but no vehicle arrived. We wondered if the second tractor had the road torn up down below putting in tubes. Friday night it rained 2 inches in RV, evidently harder down toward Lita. More creeks brought down rocks and junk and at one place the road bed washed away. We also heard that the 2^nd tractor got pulled out. Juan came to church Sunday and told us how terrible the road was, impassable, and the tractor drivers had left. So, we were about 90 percent sure on Sunday that we couldn’t get the car down, in fact we woke up Monday and I told Kevin, The car is safer where it  is, let’s just leave it. In family devotions on Monday we prayed together, just if it was God’s will, to get the car out (shaky faith, though, at least mine was!) And it was foggy, we wanted to see if PERHAPS the bulldozer started up…we thought we could follow it back down?! Maybe. But the thought of those (rather lazy) tractor drivers coming from Ibarra, walking three hours to get up to the bulldozer…well, just we knew it wouldn’t happen.) But as we left and hiked over…Kevin and I both felt, what is to be lost just to see how far we can drive down and see? At the least it saves most of us a few minutes of hiking (Kevin would still have to take the car back to park it safely at Neps in our little parking place there at the end of the road.)  

 

So, we started driving, feeling a little funny…we actually drove about a minute before we had to get out and move rocks and find a way thru…drive a few minutes more and all get out and work again….a few more yards down the road and all get out and work again….the fourth place it took us an hour of work to get by (Bayron Chuquisan’s).  First there was mud, then past that a very narrow pass over a rocky creek, squeezing by a huge rock….etc.) We threw rocks and threw  rocks and Kevin tried two times to get thru the mud but had to pull back out. Each time he went in though he made some more ground…we worked another 20 minutes and threw in more rocks right where we could see the right tires would go….so on the third try Kevin headed into the mud going as fast as he could, it was downhill, with Kenny and Keilah pushing….yes! He made it thru.  (I told him only he could do that out, it takes some nerve to drive like he was doing!) Around the corner we worked again (at Agustin’s. He came out and told it was hopeless to get down…park your car here, don’t park it down at the school in La Colonia, there are bad people down there who will hurt your car….we said we’d go a bit and see, and bring the car back if we couldn’t any farther.  At this point we didn’t think we could get back to Nep’s as the mud we came thru at Bayron Chuquisan’s would now be UPHILL.) So then two minutes and around the corner we found the washed-out road place they had all told us about. There was just a tiny bit of roadbed left….Kevin at first didn’t think enough to squeeze the car by on…but…hey, God is opening the road up before us…so let’s not give up now!  We saw it would take some work but there was room…a tight corner, the creek was really a big hole at the corner and would have to be filled in with rocks…but the BIG obstacle were two big rocks right on the narrow part of the road. We reminded ourselves of Numpty Physics…a game the kids and Kevin like where you have a challenge and have to use the laws of Science to solve…like gravity, levers, etc.  Okay…we got a pry pole and worked on the biggest rock first, figuring if we got that one, the rest is possible. We couldn’t get it very far. Then we moved to the other rock and got it over the edge. But back to the other rock…now we were starting to feel discouraged. This one big rock (maybe it weighed 600 to 800 lbs…) it was in muck…very heavy. Then Kevin hurt his back, he thinks it was another rock he picked up to move, maybe an 80 lb rock. Then with his back starting to hurt, all we could think of was to work the rest of the way thru so that we could get the car over to maybe pull the rock just out of the way…but the terrain was really rough. I didn’t know how much maneuvering he could do with his back hurt, not much space, on rocks and uneven ground. Keilah said to Kenny, maybe a truck could just pull up right now…with help! (But we KNEW a truck couldn’t pull up, the road was blocked farther down, as far as we knew) Kenny said he had just stopped to pray in his mind. And I had just been praying for help, i was thinking of maybe some Awa coming by???. Kevin started walking back to start up the car, while the kids and I tried to fill in the creek some more. We looked up and LO and BEHOLD!!! A bright red pick-up truck pulled up. One man got out,…then another one…another pickup pulled up…six  or seven men!!! They just kept getting out! It was the bulldozer driver and helper, and the bosses of the road crew…coming out to inspect and get the bulldozer back working again, they were trying to make it up to the bulldozer to take up diesel and the drivers. They were VERY motivated to drive thru and not walk… I told Kimberly to quick take a picture of that pickup and the men, they were definitely angels from God!

 

The bulldozer helper guy knew just what to do with a pry bar, and of course he had plenty of helpers. So Kenny helped the men get that rock out of the way (Kevin told them he’d hurt his back). They told us that the road was clear all down below, there was another tractor working to clean up the mess down below.

 

And we made it down! We knew it was the Lord, as we really didn’t expect the tractor drivers to come up til Tuesday (we had dentist appts and meetings all day Tues…had to come out Mon night or very early a.m. Tues before they would work) In fact, the tractor drivers very likely might now have come up except that their bosses had come along.

 

AND, the boss guys told Kevin that they are in for the  long haul, they are clearing out right now just to get the crew in that is going to build the bridge over the Rio Verde….and the road will continue. We assume if the contractors get in to build the bridge, they will need to focus on keeping the road clean and open for the heavy equipment to get in and out.

 

Wow! We have so much to do this week…I know we could have done it without the car but it just makes everything so much easier and simpler. Kevin might take a load down to Lita mid-week, hopefully the fridge and freezer we are buying for Lita property, along with all the groceries and supplies. We are buying hose and fencing to give out to the folks who lost a lot in the big rain. Also Proclaimer food supplies, etc. We are getting the trailer fixed this week so that’s how he’ll get it all down. I think we’ll have two loads worth. I’m still not sure how to do all this buying and loading without Kevin able to lift much…but the Lord will help us manage.

 

Thank you Lord! Now one more obstacle to conference…there is still no running water in Lita. They have only had water a couple of days since the big rain Feb 16^th. It’s getting really old for keeping hospitality going. And thinking of conference with 80 or more people for conference for four days and no water….well, we are discouraged at the prospect. Evidently the big rain Friday night also wiped out more tubes, we did see the team out working on it yesterday on our drive out.

 

Hope that wasn’t too boring with all those details…I know some of you had been praying that we’d get the car out…thank you. We are thrilled to see what God has done!

Kathy