A Big, Hard Day

We sat, warming ourselves in the sun at the police station. I thought to myself, "This is so hard".

I immediately was reminded that we did not come here because it is easy. 

Yesterday, I know many of you were intervening to God on behalf of our family. 

At 6:00 am, we left the gates of SIM Headquarters, smooshed in our vehicle like sardines between our luggage and each other, excited about our 8-10 hour trip to Injibara.

As many of you are aware, traffic in the city is crazy, we drove out of the city and into the countryside. It was beautiful, full of animals grazing, small huts and homes dotting the landscape.

1 1/2 hours into the trip, a woman was on the side of the road, and without looking, stepped directly into our path.  Our teammate, Cheryl, honked, locked up her brakes and swerved as far as she could without hitting an oncoming truck. 

But it wasn't enough. We hit her. A crowd swarmed, many thoughts were going through our minds.  I prayed the same thing over and over, "God, help".

As we sat there amidst all the people, we prayed for the elderly woman, protection, favor from the people and that God's name would be glorified. I processed that almost everything we own was on the landcruiser and it could all get taken. I mentally prepared myself for losing all of it.

A policeman came by taxi and took Cheryl's license and tried to take the keys. This is the policy here. If you hit someone, it is always the driver's fault.  Our teammate went to the clinic with the elderly woman and appears she is sore and has bruises.

There are many, many details I am going to leave out here but God did intervene and fill us with peace.

Our teammate kept the information from us that she was very possibly facing imprisonment. We knew it was serious but not to that level.

We hauled the policeman around and another official back and forth between the accident sight and the police station, just flexing and adjusting.

 The Littles did amazing. They sat quietly, handled the fish bowl effect of the day, worked up the courage to use a FULL squatty potty and spent nearly the whole day without toys and very little food as there were always eyes on us.  

Long story short, we spent 9 1/2 hours not knowing our outcomes. SIM members from the administration joined us to get through the bureaucracy and process that we did not know how to navigate.

We capitalized on all our waiting by starting to take out braids. This is at the police station. Notice the onlookers.

Cheryl talks to kids as we wait in another small town.

And I am not sure where I was when Jon took these pictures.

Definitely not a Mama idea.

Our teammate, Cheryl, was an absolute trooper, protecting us and definitely feeling the additional stress of five passengers with a bunch of luggage that spoke no Amharic.

And now we are back in Addis. We debriefed last night, tried to get a good night of sleep and now we wait here for at least today. The elderly woman is at a hospital in Addis and has an appointment today to see about any internal injuries.

My Mom was planning on leaving on Thursday and she could use prayers for wisdom to know if she should still depart with her existing airplane ticket or if she stays on to see Injibara. Right now, the 8-10 hours on the road seem very daunting to her.  

To me too but I know this is my new life. I also know that God is sovereign. I mentioned to Him several times yesterday, "God, you could have stopped this..." I do feel fearful and paranoid. We could seriously injure someone. But I know He is faithful. 

And statistically, this doesn't happen to missionaries often, so now I guess we have it out of the way.