There is seldom a day that goes by that we do not see some tender mercy or special little miracle. When you look for it, you begin to see the Lord's hand in so many things. We made a trip to Kruger and Swaziland in January. We got to Hazeyview okay and then the car overheated and made a terrible sound. It was obvious it would not make it for the game drive. We located a rental car that was 45 minutes away and they closed in 45 minutes. It was a miracle given the incredible speed bumps, traffic, and other challenges that we had along the way, but we got there before they closed and got the car. If the car problem had happened half way to Kruger we probably never would have been able to complete the trip. We were so blessed we had reached our destination before we had the problem.
The Fleet department located a Chevy dealership about 30 miles away in the small town of White River who had parts in stock (which was another miracle since even the big dealerships in Joburg and Nelspruit do not have parts in stock) and they thought they could fix it. We tried to limp the car down to them the next day, but we did not get far when it overheated again and we had to park it and go into the town in the rental car. Fortunately we found someone who could tow it in for us. The dealer could not tow it because it had an automatic transmission. We went on and enjoyed Kruger for two days while they worked on it.
We picked it up and turned in the rental car. We filled up with gas and while doing so, I had the attendant check the air pressure. He just happened to notice in the six inches of tread that were exposed that we had a large screw in the tire. They plugged it for us. (Another tender mercy so that we did not have a severe flat or blowout on that front tire while traveling in the middle of nowhere on some very bad roads.) With the tire fixed and gassed up we headed on to Swaziland. We took the most direct route which was up winding mountain roads that were beautiful. We got to the border and things went very smoothly, both on leaving South Africa and entering Swaziland. Once into Swaziland the paved road soon developed many severe pot holes, then it became a crumbled asphalt road, which soon changed to a dirt road, then to a mud road, and finally to a logging road until we finally got to Pigg's Peak. It was a miracle that we made it through, since we did not have four-wheel drive like the few other vehicles we saw on that road. We pressed on to our destination in Swaziland and had several great days just relaxing and seeing the area.
We headed home after Church on the 4 1/2 hour drive back to Joburg. About 45 minutes into the drive, the car overheated again. We were in the middle of nowhere. We waited for it to cool down and then added some more water to the radiator. We turned the AC off, turned the heater on, and tried to keep the rpms down to 2,000 or less even when going up hills. It was a miracle, but we finally made it out of the back rural country to the main N4 hiway back to Joburg. About an hour and a half out of Joburg we stopped at the first service station we found and got gas. It was 2:30 and we had not had lunch, so we got some food at the rest stop/plaza. I let the car cool down and then I added a lot of water to the radiator. While adding it, I could see a steady stream pouring out of the car on the other side of the engine area. I truly did not think we would make it five miles before it would probably run out of water and overheat again. We drove for 1 1/2 hours praying all the way that we could get back close enough to Joburg that someone could come and get us before it got dark and dangerous to be out. Don't let anyone ever tell you that the Lord does not bless missionaries. He heard our prayers and got us all the way back home to Duke's Court. When we pulled in and parked the first thing we did was have a prayer of Thanks for getting us home safely.
The next morning I added water. There was a big puddle of antifreeze under the car, We drove it about 4 kilometers to the Office and I gave the keys to the fleet department along with all the problems I knew of. They got ready to take it to the dealer to have it checked out and they could not get it to start. They had to have it towed. Another sign that we had truly experienced the Lord's tender mercies and miracles in getting it all the way home and to the office before it quit working. It was simply one small miracle and tender mercy after another on that trip.
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