Mon, Feb 08, 2016

This was supposed to be a simple trip, long but pretty basic. The plan was to take the big bus after Sunday Night Service and drive about 8 hours to catch the morning ferry, which would take us to Roatan Island. That plan started to fall apart on Sunday morning when the bus stopped cooperating. The men had put so much work into it after it had sat unused for about a year. When they tested it on Thursday it worked fine. After getting to the church at a turtle crawling pace, worries began to arise. Could we really trust this bus to carry us all the to the ferry, especially after the trouble it gave us last year with just a 3 hour drive?
Bro. Scott Sumner tested it again on the way home and it seemed fine until the engine started to cut off again. The afternoon passed in a flurry with preparations to have everything packed and ready before leaving for the evening service. As the women put lunch together, the men began to work on making other arrangements. We now had to take the smaller bus and the trailer for luggage, of which needed 2 new tires. We had nearly finished the dishes when the electricity went out! The men then had to stop on whatever work they were doing. I was then unable to print out the scripts for my Drama class. (So looking forward to writing them out by hand!)
Fast forward -- we had a great service and was able to for everyone in the mini bus,  a van, and the Prado. We traveled without any problem on the bus and I had just finished thanking God for that when we had to stop at a gas station in Teguc. It was there we found out the clutch in the van had gone out completely and we were not going anywhere for awhile. Even then, God was faithful to provide needs around us and protected us from harm. The van could have quit functioning in the mountains or near a cliff but we were right where we needed to be for help and nourishment.
We spent all night at the gas station parking lot and all morning while the van was worked on and the bus received 2 new tires. We finally left around noon, had a lunch break at McDonald's, then headed for the road again.
However, we've missed all chances of catching a ferry today and will need to spend another night on the bus once we reach Ceba. Morning can't come soon enough!