Shanksteps of faith #42
8-25-06
We’re Back…
It may be hard to believe for those of you who have
traveled in Africa, but we had an essentially
uneventful trip back from the states. As you may
remember, on our first trip here, we missed every
plane, train, automobile, and motorcycle. I think
that God was really pushing for us to get back to Koza
quickly as the hospital went without doctors for
several days. (The couple that replaced us at Koza
were told that they only had one day that they could
fly out of Cameroun or they would have to stay until
September. They chose to leave Koza a couple of days
before we returned so that they would be able to leave
the country.) We left Charleston WV on Aug 11th (the
day after the terrorists were arrested) slightly late
and arrived into Cleveland OH with just enough time to
catch the next flight. (I have to add that we had 8
bags (allowed 6) and they were all overweight, but the
agent never charged us one cent – a miracle in
itself.) We left Cleveland a bit late but arrived in
Newark NJ with just enough time to make the flight.
We were kinda hoping that we wouldn’t make the flight
in Brussels so that we would be “forced†to spend a
couple of days with our good friend Steve in Germany,
but God had other plans. We arrived in Brussels,
deplaned and arrived at the next gate as they were
boarding. We got into Douala, Cameroun at around the
time planned and fortunately there were people from
the church to meet us there. (We did however lose 2
bags, only one of which has been found.) We spent the
night in Douala at a hotel and traveled the next
morning to Yaounde. In Yaounde we found that the
airline we were supposed to take back up north was not
running, and hadn’t been for over a week. The
Kettings (the doctors that replaced us in Koza) faced
the same problem and were forced to travel to Yaounde
by train. So, we were able to spend a day with them,
debriefing. We found that we were not able to catch a
train back up north for 4 days – and were feeling very
frustrated. But, again God is in control. Our
Administrator Yves had traveled to Yaounde with the
Kettings, and he dealt with the people at the train
station all day to get us tickets. At 4:30 on the
14th he called and said, “Get to the train station
quickly, I got us all tickets.†So, we left our
baggage in Yaounde and got on the train. We spent 19
hours on the train, and then 7 hours in a minibus.
The next part of the trip was definitely a miracle
because we really just wanted to get home to Koza, but
there is no transportation at 10:30 at night which is
when we arrived in Maroua. As we were driving into
Maroua, we passed a bush taxi that was headed to
Mokolo. Our driver turned around and flashed down the
taxi. We were able to squish on board to travel the
hour to Mokolo. At 11:30pm in Mokolo we found one
motorcycle driver who was willing to take us the last
1 ∠hours to Koza. He found two friends. With the
driver, Sarah and me on one moto, Greg and driver on
the 2nd, and Yves and driver on the 3rd, we headed to
Koza. My moto taxi had fuel problems, and only had
lights about half of the way. Greg’s moto got a flat
tire about ≤ of the way there. So, Greg, Yves and the
driver finished the trip on one motorcycle. Sarah,
myself and our driver on the 2nd, and the third driver
limped along with a flat tire. We got to Koza around
12:45 in the rain, and as there are only dirt roads
here it was all mud. I looked over to Greg and Yves,
and they had slid right over and all three and their
baggage were sitting in mud. Fortunately, the mud here
is soft and they were going slowly, so no one was
hurt, only a bit muddy. The three moto drivers spent
the night on our porch to fix their motos in the
morning and then left for home. We were sooooo
thankful to be home. Isaiah and Pierre were both here
to greet us and we stayed up until around 2am talking.
We’re happy to be back but sad to leave our families.
We are extremely grateful to the Kettings for running
the hospital in our absence. Everything was running
smoothly when we returned, and all salaries had been
paid through the worst time of year. (Last year when
we arrived, salaries hadn’t been paid for almost 3
months due to lack of funds.) This in itself is a
miracle, and we have God and the willingness of the
Kettings to thank for that. Thank you all for your
prayers – they are much needed and appreciated. We
love to hear from you. We were hoping that our ham
radio/e-mail would be up by now, but it is not yet
working. We’ll let you know once we get it going.
God Bless,
Aud, Greg, and Sarah Shank