The Day of Murphy’s law

Though I was completely exhausted from moving all day that yesterday, I was still ready!

Ready to go to Akot my new home!

This day we were all packed up and ready to go and move to Akot into my mud hut! I was so excited and ready to go. My heart was so sweet and pumping full of anticipation for a new location and new people.  New adventure and new missions!

But when we woke up and found the pick up truck sitting on a flat tire.

But that did not stop us, no way! Plus we had the Fusion team to help us change the tire very quickly. Also! The truck has two spare tires so we are still good to go down to Akot with one spare.

So we all loaded up the pick up truck to the top and Mark, Cathy and all the Fusion team stood in a circle to pray for a safe journey to Akot.

We prayed.

 

Then Mark, Cathy, Andrew, Jessie, and Kaley got into Mark’s land curser. Wycliffe and I were in the pick up truck. I jumped into the drivers seat, put the key in, took off the safety break and let it rip. 

On our way to Akot, driving good as the wheels hit the dirt road and kick up dirt to leave a dust trail. This is great I thought, so great!

Then suddenly I hear a noise on the right side of the truck. “What is that?” I asked. “OO! The tire is flat.” Wycliffe replies. I pull over on the side of the road. Ok lets get this tire changed and go, I thought. Thank God we had two spares. But I also thought as I loosen the bolts, that we have no spares for the truck now going down to Akot and we are pretty far away.

 

So I am turning the jack up and the truck is going up and up, then suddenly the jack pops off and the truck slams to the ground, BAM!

 

“OOO! Sorry, Sorry!” Wycliffe says. “Hot Dang it! This stupid Jack!” I ranted off.

This same jack broke on me when I was in Juba, the top plate broke off. But I knew how to fix it and everything is cool. So I just put the jack back under the truck and start again. The Jack works there is no problem, Thank you Jesus! I began to take the flat tire off but the truck is not high enough so I tell Wycliffe to turn the jack higher. So as Wycliffe is turning up the jack I hear this metal ping sound! Then I see something fly from the jack!

“O! You know I don’t like these jacks!” Wycliffe yells. “What happen?” I asked. “ The hook to turn the jack up and down broke off!” Wycliffe says. “All Naw!” I said, as I took a look at the jack. “Dang! How we going to get the jack down to lower the truck?!” I asked. Wycliffe said “That one I don’t know.” Wycliffe replied. LOL!

 

So I said “Man let’s just change this tire.” We change the tire.

Then after much thinking and consideration Wycliffe wedge the bar in where the hook broke off of the jack and lowered it very slowly. I took about an hour and a half or so just to change that one tire with all those problems!

So finally the truck cam down, but I look down and saw that the spare was even flat! So I calmly said “well this tire is too flat as well.” “What?!” Wycliffe said shockingly, running over to take a look.

So! We have no jack, no spare tires, two flat tires, a flat spare, and no pump either! We are officially stranded!

 

I tried calling Mark on the SAT phone but no luck. So I sent Wycliffe on a matatu back to Mark’s compound to get the pump. I sat on the road by the truck and every person passing by asked what is wrong and then they see they can’t help and drive off. It started to aggravate me so I hid in the bushes from off the road and watched the truck. I waited only for about another hour and half or so then Wycliffe came back with the pump!

Yes! God is with us I thought, we are on our way! We went to pump the tire and I kid you not, the pump would not work!

But after some struggle with it Wycliffe took it out of the sun and he fixed it. And we began to pump the tire. And we pump, and pump, and pump so hard. I pump until blisters came on my palms. Finally after another about 30 min or so we reached 50 PSI! Lets go to Akot right, wrong! I figured we are much closer to Rumbek then Akot and it would not be smart to go down to Akot with no Jack no spares and a soft tire. So we head back to Rumbek to get all those things we need.

 

We get back to Rumbek in town and the first traffic stop we hit we are whistled down by some traffic cops in all white uniform. They harass me like always. “You must bring license now!” the traffic cop says.

I guess I violated one of his many made up rules by turning into the tire shop, whatever. Wycliffe and I argue back and forth with the traffic cop on what I did wrong. It finally ends with a traffic fine on me. And it really aggravated me at that time but I just tried to keep Christ on even though it was false accusation.

 

So now we have to go into the market and get a jack. So we leave the two spare tires to be fix and go to the market. As we turn around the round about I hear another traffic cop whistle! I say “You have got to be kidding me?!” But then we see a motorbike come flying passed us and the cop is pointing at the bike. So thank goodness we continue.

But no, the same traffic cop speeds up to us on a motorbike, pissed. He yells “Pull over!” As I pull over I told Wycliffe “Man I’m just about to go to jail!” I then continue to say “Take me to jail cause I’m sick of this crap!”

The traffic cop comes to the car yelling who knows what. Then in English he say “Bring ear phones!” “What Ear Phones!” I reply. “I don’t have no ear phones!” And just as I was about rant and rave a local Dinka man that I know called Jackson came up and spoke for us. He resolve the situation by telling the cop they can’t keep doing this and that he knew the cop’s brother and took him to court for doing this same thing.

The traffic back down and let us go. I thank Jackson over and over for his help, he was sent from God I believe.

 

So finally Wycliffe and go buy the jack, then we pick up the tires and get out of there. It was a quiet trip down to Akot as Wycliffe and I were dismayed and exhausted from what this day gave us. Me myself I was saying this was Murphy’s Law today. But I was thankful for God’s Law. “What can go wrong God can get you through and fix it.”

 

Because we could have had only one spare tire instead of two, when the jack broke it could have hurt or killed me or Wycliffe, the jack could have stop working after that, the pump could have stayed broken, the traffic cops could have took me to court or jail, I could have lost my temper and went off on the second traffic cop but God sent Jackson to help me and calm the situation.

 

Thank you my God, my Lord, my Daddy, when there is Murphy’s Law, The children of God have God’s Law. Thank you Daddy.