Around the Bend

David had a close call on Sunday as he came back from an outreach. Here's his story.

I left on Friday with three Zambian evangelists, Rogers, Daniel, and Pastor, for a weekend outreach. Chief Nyawa invited us to come preach at a fish camp on the Sichifulo River 90 miles into the bush northwest of Kalomo. This river flows west and empties into the great Zambezi River. October is the driest, hottest month so the water flow on this river drops dramatically, leaving large pools of water throughout the river bed. People flock here by the hundreds to fish. During the day they swim out to stands they have built in the middle of the river pools and spear barbol (similar to American catfish). Around 5:00 pm they head back to their campsites where they clean the fish and either smoke them over campfires or hang them to dry in the hot sun. There is no salt for perserving, and the odor is ....whew! After a few days they bundle up their dried or smoked fish and take them to their village or to the market.

We preached at this fish camp Saturday and Sunday and had a captive audience of 250. What a wonderful experience! On Sunday morning we held two worship services. At 8:00 we preached at the village of Gooda (Goo-dah). This is a new congregation that was started just a few months ago by some Christians who recently moved into the area. Eight people were baptized after that service. Then we headed 30 minutes down the road to the fish camp where the group of 250 had gathered in the shade. Just before noon we loaded up and headed back toward Namwianga.

The bush is beginning to turn green even though there has been no rain since April. On the trip home I experienced how dangerous this greening of the trees in the bush is. We traveled slowly along sandy "roads," never getting above third gear. These single lane "roads" in long sections have trees and bushes growing right up to the edge of the road. On a straight section this is okay. But on curves you don't ever know if a car, truck, cyclist, cow, goat, or person on foot is around the blind side of the curve.

Around 3:30 we were traveling at about 20 miles an hour on a rare, smooth, straight section of the road that winds through a cornfield. A curved section was coming up with thick, tall, bush bordering each side of the curve. About 20 yards before I reached the curve, a Toyota Land Cruiser truck came roaring down the road around the curve and straight at us. I quickly swerved to the right and into the corn field, avoiding a deadly head-on collision. I managed to stop the truck just before hitting the trees and bushes bordering the curve. Miraculously, no one was hurt and the truck was not damaged. With the truck in 4-wheel drive, I was able get us out of the field and back on the road. I had some words with the Zambian driving the Land Cruiser: "Sir, but by the grace of God go we. Please drive slower." We were very thankful to God that we were at a place in the road where we could avoid a head-on collision. Five seconds made the difference this time. I appreciated once again the prayers rising up for us.