Cable Angel

Keeping the vehicles running at Namwianga is a constant struggle, and that task is especially challenging when medical mission time rolls around. Several guys have been working diligently for the last two weeks to get the necessary vehicles up and running.

Last week Josh Massingill and Martin Mwiimbili made a trip to Lusaka to find a cable for one of the Nissan trucks. They spent the better part of a day going from store to store, showing the worn-out cable and trying to find a replacement. No store had the needed part, and some clerks assured them that no one else in Lusaka did either.

Finally they decided to try a new part of town. They had just gotten to the new shopping center and were stepping into a store when a guy walked up to them and said, "You need this. Come with me." He held up a brand new cable, still in the plastic wrap. Josh and Martin followed the man up to the third floor of a nearby building and negotiated the price.

As Josh's dad, K. B. Massingill, puts it: "Either the spare-parts network in Lusaka (a city of a couple of million) is very organized and word had gotten out that we were looking for this cable, or this was an angel sent to us with a spare cable. Perhaps the next time we need a difficult-to-locate spare part, we will just go stand at the market and wait for someone to approach us."