Four members of mgpc (Roger Bannister, Alan Clarkson, Gavin and Sandra Megaw) are currently on a short term trip to explore opportunities for our church to partner with local congregation/s in East Timor.
Thursday was a full day which involved installing a concrete floor in the back room of a church.
Friday was a bit different from that as the four got a very intense insight into the nature of life in a country like Timor Leste (East Timor).
Here’s Sandra’s narrative of events, lifted from two posts on her Facebook feed.
Yesterday God threw a challenge our way! We were taking a trip into Dili but didn’t make it too far before a motorbike with 2 passengers on it crashed into our vehicle going round a bend. Roger was the driver and there was absolutely nothing he could do to prevent it. They were speeding round the bend. And all of a sudden there were 50 people were there were none! And decisions are not made fast here in Timor Leste! Dili was approx 20km away but the injured girl wanted to go to Nairu 80km away over the other side of the island! We had to take her and the 80km trip took 4 hours. The girl had a broken leg below the knee and only wanted traditional medicine. The Policia came along bout 5 mins after the accident (coincidence?!!). They followed us all the way to Nairu, we think they were distrustful of us!
We had the girl on the back seat & Dino (our interpreter) had to sit in the front to direct Roger on the way. Which meant Gavin, Mr Domingos & I had to sit in the ute tray with the motorbike all the way for 4 hrs. Plus the guy who took the opportunity to grab a free ride back to Nairu! 1 hr into the trip it downpoured a torrential rain for 3 hours! I don’t ever remember being so soaked to the bone & numb with cold! The roads are like on tv: Worlds Most Dangerous Roads!!!!! I prayed all the way for safety for us and that we would even make it back! Being foreigners it was worrying too what the police would do once we got there! The girl lost so much blood during the trip she lost consciousness once. once we arrived at their ‘doctor’ he brewed a concuction for her, chewed something & spat on her leg & Gavin said the leg definitely straightened!!!! Amazing. But then came the financial negotiations! they wanted money from us for her treatment even though we were not in the wrong! But in a different culture this is how it works. $200 was agreed upon (thanks to Dino) and hands were shaken that stated the dispute was over, settled & done! So at 6.30pm after a group prayer to thank God for getting us there, for the girls healing & to help us make it back we headed back in the dark. 5 1/2 hours later we arrived in our Timor Leste home to the most beautiful, emotional welcome from these wonderful people! Hot food and touches, hugs & kisses. And of course all attentive for the entire story of the days events. Remembering too that 2 of our party were their own people so their relief was all round. Many times of sharing the gospel & praying together have abounded today (along with all hands helping scrub out the blood soaked vehicle) MAROMAK NIA DIAK!!
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