The Craziest Trip of My Life

We actually went to Molongo which is right on Lac Kabamba and at least 500 kilometers away but one man claimed it was 630. Our odometer was broken so we don’t know.

We left around 4:30 in the morning. Only half an hour late what an accomplishment. I was shocked to see that my interpreter had chosen not to come at the last minute. I also had been told we would take a different vehicle. This car had no seat belts none of the gauges worked and it looked in less than great shape. I decided to just trust the church and go. They told me the road had been fixed and we would make it in 12 hours.

The road went from bad to worse and then right when you were certain there was no chance the road could get any worse it got worse. Every bad thing you can imagine for a road and vehicle took place. Sand, rocks, mud, water, mountains, caved in sections, poor bridges, break downs, car running hot, broken shocks, broken transmit ion, leaking fuel tank, seriously everything you could imagine all packed into this one trip with an extra helping of poor driving. We reached one sunk in place full of water. I saw vehicle stopped just after and inquired about it. They said “inakufwa” It is dead. No doubt it has been a gas engine and the water had killed it and they had to wait for it to dry out before they could use it again. I asked the 2 important questions “Does the truck have 4 wheel drive and is it a diesel engine?” To both they replied “Apana” no. I was ready to turn back but the driver was already gunning it. He got stuck but thankfully the water didn’t kill our truck and after cutting some branches and plenty of pushing we made it out.

It took us 33 hours to make it there. We were completely exhausted, sore, and dehydrated when we arrived only to parade around for an hour while the church showed off their visitors dancing and singing around us one of their traditions to honor guests but considering the circumstances it was pretty miserable. I was sore and couldn’t feel my backside at all. I was so thirsty but the only water to drink was river water cloudy and disgusting but I drank tons of it. Mulongo is on Lac Kabamba so it was crazy hot and humid all the time. It was nearly impossible to sleep because the house was 95 degrees at night. I went to sleep and woke up drenched in sweat.

The next day was better. I preached but my interpreter backed out at the last minute from coming so it was tricky. The singing was the best part. The Baluba cut down huge trees maybe 3 feet wide and 6 feet long then hollow it out with a line down the middle the long way and two holes. They make them with all different sizes and sounds and use them as drums. They have a unique and wonderful sound. They also use the normal Congo instrument of clanging metal together and using plastic funnels to sing into and hit with sticks to make more noise. The people were so excited to have visitors. After the service we ate leaves and maize meal as usual took a rest and then went back to church. In the afternoon from 3 until 7 we talked about questions and problems in the churches and defined some of the basic doctrinal problems like what the differences are between our church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The people loved it and thanked us so much for coming and helping them.

The next morning we were off at 3:30. With 2 goats the church had given us. I would never have taken the goats because there already wasn’t a lot of space but they also peed and pooped everywhere. It was disgusting. We had more break downs than on the way there and I really started to pray we would make it back. At 9pm the truck flipped over. Five people were sitting in the back of the truck and there were no seat belts inside the cab either. Someone could have easily died or at least been injured but there was barely a scratch on any of us. The roof rack on the truck really saved us to. It prevented us from flipping upside down. Even the goats survived and all of our fuel. I began to think we would be there for days but we were able to flip the car back over and miraculously kept going.

We stopped at Kubo to help a church there facing a lot of difficulties. After a few hours we were off. With only 60 kilometers left it got dark again. This time on a road with traffic so each time a car passed us the dust was so bad we had to stop because we couldn’t see at all. It took us 3 hours to do those last 60 kilometer. God was with us. We saw a car stopped because it had hit a man that the bus wasn’t able to see in the dust. God protected us. We finally arrived 42 hours later at 9:30. We prayed and then went to our homes. I arrived at 10:30 at my house and by the time I washed the dirt caked on me and made something to eat and got into bed it was midnight. I am exhausted and still a little sore but I guess I have something to write home about.