Help Me!

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you are aware that I was recently in a wreck here in Zambia. I just got back the cost of fixing the vehicle. It’s going to be $160. My goal here is to bless the Love’s Door team. I feel like I’ve been helping out and that my time here has been and will continue to be fruitful. However, I don’t want this incident to be a tainting of my visit.

I just want to say, first of all, how incredibly grateful I am to everyone who supported me in coming here. I’m always so humbled when I see the response of my friends and family. I’m not always the most vocal with my thanksgiving (something I’m working on) but I feel so blessed to have you all in my life.

If you feel that you can (in any way, small or large) help me cover this expense, I will be immensely grateful! I want to try to make this as easy as I can for you to help me bless this ministry so there are two ways you can give.

First, you can mail a donation to:

Love’s Door

PO Box 1185

Philomath, OR 97078

If you use this method, PLEASE put a note in with your donation indicating that it is to help with Adam’s Vehicle Repair.

The other option is through my Go Fund Me account. You can access that here.

Thank you so much again for helping me out. I love you all!

Illegal Immigrants!

On Thursday, I drove out to the village to pick up some of the guys who had stayed there. On my way back to town, I was stopped by immigration. They were looking for people involved in human trafficking and such. They asked all of us for our id’s. Zech and I only had our driver’s licenses on us and some of the Zambians didn’t even have that. The guy told us that he would be well within his rights to detain us until our passports were brought. Luckily, he let us go.

This stop reminded me that Dawna and I were supposed to have our visa’s renewed on January 8^th. It was now the 10^th.  Unfortunately, immigration was closed already that day. So, when I got back to town, I talked to Regina and she said she thought the fine was $100 per day that we were late. Since we were going in on the 11^th, it would have been a $300 fine for each one of us. Neither one of us has that kind of money.

So Friday morning, Mike, Dawna, and I prayed briefly and headed down to throw ourselves on their mercy. When we got there, Mike explained our situation to the lady and apologized and asked for mercy. She then informed us that they no longer fine people for being late. (Sounded good to me!) Instead, they just take them straight to jail to face trial. (That didn’t sound so good to me!) She proceeded to tell Mike that he would be joining Dawna and I in jail since he was harboring illegal immigrants. We tried to plead with her a bit more but she just told us to have a seat and wait to be taken to jail.

After a little bit, Dawna started to explain that she didn’t have any idea that she was supposed to renew her visa after thirty days and asked how much it would cost to get us out of this mess. The lady told her that ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law. But she also said that we could participate in some special program that would cost us $4000 each. It would keep us out of jail and allow us to be in the country for like two years or something. Well, as I said before, we definitely don’t have that kind of money.

We sat there for a little bit and then the lady asked us how long we would like to stay in Zambia. We told her that we were both here until February 20^th. She started to do something in our passports and asked us to have a seat. Our hopes soared! And then Dan came in. He informed the immigration officer that he was the ceo of the organization we were working with. She jumped right back to the “harboring illegal immigrants” thing and asked where the handcuffs were. Admittedly, I don’t fully remember what was said. I just remember at some point Dan asked what the law was and she said jail and he told her that we must follow the law. Then he left to go get some paperwork that we had left at the team house.

At this point, I was pretty sure that we were going to jail. I was actually a little bit excited. I’d never been to jail and I figured it would make a cool story. Plus, I’d be going with Mike so it wouldn’t be too bad. I reasoned that if I went to jail, it’s because God wanted me there so I was excited to see what would happen.

However, about five minutes after Dan left. She called us back up and gave us our passports and let us go! I should mention, the whole time this was going on, there was a British girl sitting next to us trying to cheer us up. When she heard we were going to jail, she texted a friend who got us the number for the American Embassy in Zambia (after this experience, I’d recommend you learn that number if you travel). That was really cool of her. I don’t think we ever got her name, though.

After we were released, I checked online and the law in Zambia is either $3750 or jail. When you go to jail, you appear before a judge who decided your fine and then you are deported. God really was looking out for us and got us out of some big trouble there. Needless to say, I don’t think we’ll be forgetting our next renewal date!

Accident

Here’s a story of my last few days. Bear in mind that we always think in terms of our experiences, and I’m no different. My experiences growing up in Indiana shaped a lot of the assumptions I made in this situation. That being said…

The other day, I was parked next to a rather large truck (think mini-semi). So I was having difficulty seeing behind me. I happened to have a guy with me though. From what I could see, there was a tan colored car stopped far enough back that I had plenty of room to back out. He had his hazard lights on. The guy with me said “He is signaling for you to back out; he wants your spot.” I then proceeded to back out. I heard some honking. Didn’t think anything of it and started to drive away.

Suddenly, a green car comes flying up next to me and the guy is yelling at me to pull over. He keeps swerving over and almost hitting me. I’m thinking that I must have cut this guy off and he’s ticked and wants to fight. There’s no way I’m pulling over. Finally, the guy I’m riding with explains that apparently I hit this guy and that I should pull over to talk.

I pull over and suddenly a huge crowd forms around us. So much yelling and talking in a language I can’t understand. Finally, the guy (David) tells me to follow him to a place we can talk. We go there but four other guys hop into his car. I’m thinking they’re friends of his and quickly trying to work out what I’m going to do if they want to fight.

Finally we pull over on this side street, into a dirt parking lot. As we get out, David and his four “friends” talk. Then he tells me that we can either get the police involved or “someone must work on my car.” I call Dan because I figure he has a better idea of what to do in this situation and also it’s his vehicle. He tells me to take it and just get it fixed if I can.

I know where the mechanic is that Dan and Regina use so I ask if we can go there. He agrees and hops in his vehicle and I in mine. Then his four friends come over to my truck and tell me “You give us money, or we go to the police.” This starts to make me a little bit angry. So I say “I have no money to give you.” Then they tell me they are going to go to the police. I hop out of my truck and tell David “These guys say that if I don’t pay them, they will go to the police. I have no money to give them so should you and I just go to the police together?” I made sure the four guys heard me say this and understood I wasn’t afraid of their threat. David responds “I have nothing to do with these guys. You just follow me.” Reminds me of Jesus words.

When I get back to my truck the guys say again “you give us three hundred thousand or we go to the police.” (three hundred thousand is equivalent to $60 and there’s no way I’m giving them anything; I don’t respond to bribes or blackmail). At this point I’m really irritated with them so I say “Right now you are trying to take advantage of someone who just had an accident and is a bit frazzled. What you are doing is rude, inconsiderate, and wrong.” And I drove off with them still threatening.

We got to the mechanic and came to an agreement. He has Job (the mechanic) fix his car and Job will send me the bill. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to fix it until tomorrow or Tuesday and also I still don’t know how much it’s going to cost. To top it all off, my atm card isn’t working right now for some reason. I really feel like the Lord is involved in this though so I’m not worried.

This guy I hit, David, is really cool, by the way. He’s constantly asking me how I’m doing or how’s work or how my day is. The other day he gave me and a friend a ride home to save us from walking in the rain. He’s a follower of Jesus, though, and those people are usually the coolest =)

I’ve learned through this whole mess that I really do trust the Lord. I can not see at all how He is working in this but I just feel a lot of peace and trust in this situation. I know, I mean really know, that He “works all things for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.”