Sunday, March 29, 2009

Hidden Dangers

Thank you for your prayer for safety this week. We travelled down to Acapulco in 3 vans with José, Andrew and me driving. The kids did really well once again with the long journey. What was obvious to me on the way back was how crazy the driving became once we got back into Mexico City. Buses and trucks just pull out in front of you without stopping fircing you to slam on the brakes. We were on the home straight when someone slammed on the brakes in front and stopped completely because they saw a place where they could turn in the road. Thankfully we were able to go around them. After leaving Karen back to her home I saw a nasty accident. Had I been 10 or 15 minutes earlier I may have been involved. We were reminded of our need to depend on God for our safety on the roads and we approciate you prayers, particularly for Andrew as he does quite a bit of driving in the city.

Yesterday Andrew popped out with Tabitha to do a message. Unfortunately the road which is normally two lanes was reduced to one lane with the traffic coming the opposite direction taking up the outside lane. There was nothing to warn him that that was the case and as he overtook a car he collided with an oncoming vehicle head on. Thankfully neither he nor Tabitha was hurt. The people in the other car were ok too despite not wearing seatbelts (as is far too common here). I went with a neighbour to pick up Tabitha and Andrew had to go with the police.

Our neighbours were phenomenal. Some went to the police station to be with Andrew and the kids and I stayed with others in their house. It certainly was a frightening learning experience. After the accident happened a bollard was quickly put out to direct the traffic into one lane. It was there by the time the police arrived so the accident looked like it was Andrew's fault. The other driver didn't have insurance either which made it more complicated again. At one point there was the possibility that both drivers would be detained for 48 hours. We praise God for our excellent insurance (and the people who organise that for us) which included the service of a fantastic lawyer. They worked fast and so Andrew was able to get out and was home just before midnight (about 7 hours after he left home). There is a little work to be done on the van and though we are frustrated by the circumstances of what happened we are grateful that everyone is ok. We are also grateful to know that we have 'family' around us in the form of our neighbours. When Andrew got out they all stood around him to support him and they have already been over a couple of times today. We got great news a couple of weeks ago that the owner of our house has decided not to raise our rent this year in order to keep us on here. Isn't God good!

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