Inconvenience or God’s Will?

Our XMA team was in Southeast Asia prayer-riding on 100cc motor scooters and distributing AudiBibles, solar powered MP3 players with oral Bible stories.  We had worked our way up into the mountains of a national park where there were a few scattered villages and, of course, Buddhist monasteries.  As we followed signs (which we couldn’t read because they were in the local language) to what we thought was one last village the dirt road deteriorated into little more than a pig trail.
 

We finally conceded that the trail was just too rough for our little scooters and turned around (maybe those signs were saying ‘Dead end turn around now’).   We were in the proverbial backside of nowhere when my back tire went flat.  Not to worry!  Like a good XMA teamleader I was prepared with a patch kit and pump.  However, it turned out to be a big rip in the tube from the rocky trail and our patch wasn’t going to help.

Nothing to do but try to ride out on the flat tire and look for help.  I stood up on the footpegs, leaned forward over the handlebars to transfer as much weight as possible to the front tire and slowly began the descent back down the trail.  Some men we met on the trail mimed that we should go right when we got to the road to find help.  The first place we stopped had an air pump but no new tube.  He pointed further up the road holding up one finger indicating, we hoped, one kilometer more.

The next place had two really ferocious looking and sounding dogs at the gate and they didn’t like ‘gringos’.  When a man came out to see what was going on I pointed at my flat tire and gave him my best Puss’n Boots sad eyes.  It worked!  He said something to the dogs then opened the gate and motioned for us to come in.  Our new friend called a younger man out to fix the flat then invited us up to the porch for a cold glass of water.  We tried talking but it wasn’t much more than pointing and grunting for both sides. This provided an excellent opportunity for us to give the family an AudiBible and to spend time praying for them.

So, rather than see the flat tire as an irritating inconvenience and a delay in OUR plans we saw it as God showing us His will.  It was His desire that we stop at this house rather than just pray as we rode by.  Please join us in praying that this family and others will come to know Christ through His Word.