“Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?”
~ Psalm 77:13
Hi James and Ellen,
The afternoon and evening was spent in San Rafael, Bolivia. Your grandmaa, grandpaa, Aunt Lynn and dad were with a Bolivia South American Mission summer team that your grandmaa and grandpaa were leading. The summer team of college age guys and gals had put on a happening that evening in San Rafael. A good size crowd gathered to listen to the songs that were sung, to watch the skits that were put on and to hear Samuel Tosubé speak. Samuel Tosubé is a young Bolivian guy who your grandpaa asked to go with the summer team that summer as the evangelistic speaker. Usually the guys, gals and kids who come to a summer team happening in a community such as San Rafael are happy to see and hear a group of young guys and gals from the United States share their testimony of faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, have these young guys and gals interact with them and watch these young guys and gals model what a Christ-follower life is like. The evening in San Rafael had been different than evenings in other places. Several of the San Rafael young guys had become overly enamored with the blond haired gals who were on the summer team. By the time that the happening ended that evening in San Rafael, your grandpaa along with every other guy, gal and kid who was on and with that year’s Bolivia summer team were very ready to leave San Rafael for San José de Chiquitos – which was the next community that the summer team was scheduled to travel to. San Rafael is located about 100 kilometers – or about 60 miles, from San José de Chiquitos. It did not take your grandpaa very long after the happening ended in San Rafael to get everything packed on top of the frame or rack that covered the back of the white C-10 Chevrolet pickup that your grandmaa and grandpaa owned and to get the guys and gals who were riding with him seated on the three rows of wood benches that your grandpaa had in the back of the pickup for them to sit on. Because there was not enough room for every guy, gal and kid who was on and who was traveling with that year’s Bolivia summer team in the C-10 Chevrolet pickup that your grandmaa and grandpaa owned, your grandpaa had asked A.I.E.O. (Asociación de Iglesias Evangélicas de Oriente) – which is what the association of churches that are affiliated with South American Mission in Bolivia is called, if he could use their Toyota Jeep to help carry some of the summer team guys and gals to a number of the rural communities that are located in eastern Bolivia. One of the Bolivia South American Mission field team missionaries – Rob Everett, was willing to drive A.I.E.O.’s Toyota Jeep. By the time that that year’s Bolivia South American Mission summer team of college age guys and gals made it to San Rafael, the A.I.E.O.’s Toyota Jeep’s battery was almost useless.
As your grandpaa was about to leave San Rafael with his load of guys and gals, your grandpaa told Rob that they would really need to push hard to make it to San José de Chiquitos by midnight. Your grandpaa knew that it would take them at least three hours to get to San José de Chiquitos because of the very rough, dirt road that they would be driving on. Not long after your grandpaa left San Rafael with his load of guys and gals, he could see to his right a line of very dark clouds. As your grandpaa drove towards San José de Chiquitos, he could see that it was a front that was heading right towards him. Your grandpaa knew that he and Rob would really have to drive hard to make it to San José de Chiquitos in time to beat the hard winds and cold rains that came with fronts that crossed eastern Bolivia at the time of the year when a summer team was in Bolivia. About halfway to San José de Chiquitos, your grandpaa realized that the Toyota Jeep’s headlights were no longer right behind him. After waiting for a minute or so, your grandpaa turned his pickup around and headed back towards San Rafael to look for the Toyota Jeep. After going a couple of kilometers, your grandpaa came across the Toyota Jeep stopped in the middle of the bumpy, potholed road that he and Rob were traveling. One of the gals who was riding in the Toyota Jeep supposedly asked Rob to stop for a moment as she needed to . . . when Rob stopped the Toyota Jeep, the Toyota Jeep’s battery died. Bob could not restart the Toyota Jeep. After your grandpaa took the battery out of his pickup and the battery out of the Toyota Jeep’s, your grandpaa put the battery from his pickup in the Toyota Jeep and started the Toyota Jeep. When the Toyota Jeep started, your grandpaa took out his pickup’s battery and quickly put the Toyota Jeep’s dead battery back in the Toyota Jeep and . . . after your grandpaa made it very clear to all the guys and gals who were riding in the Toyota Jeep that Rob was driving and in the pickup that he was driving that neither he or Rob would stop again for any reason at all until he and Rob reached San José de Chiquitos.
Your grandpaa does not remember what time it was when he, your grandmaa, Aunt Lynn, dad and the summer team of college age guys and gals finally arrived in San José de Chiquitos. Just as your grandpaa and Rob drove their vehicles into the semi-covered patio area of a grimy hotel that is in San José de Chiquitos where your grandpaa planned to spend the night, wind driven rain began to beat on the corrugated tin roof that covered some of the patio area. There were just exactly enough beds in the grubby hotel for each guy, gal and kid to have a bed to sleep in that night. A very stressful day ended for your grandpaa in a very miraculous way. Psalm 77 was scribed by a song psalm writer to recollect how God miraculously intervened when the going got rough for His specially chosen guys and gals as they trekked to a land area that . . . the song psalm author scribed what is now verse 13, “Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?” Your grandpaa has experienced over and over God’s divine ways.
Psalm 77 (623)