It had been a long dusty trip over some of the world’s worst roads after we left the only paved road in central Uganda. Four of us were packed into a small English Ford as we tried to breathe through the clouds of dust generated by the buses in front of us. We only had another hour to go until we arrived at Bukoba, where we were going to hold a series of evangelistic meetings. Only one more hour and one more ferry trip across a river and we would arrive.
Alas, life does not always work the way we plan. Arriving at the ferry we discovered it was broken and would not be repaired for days. The closest ferry was 95 miles north. We were so close and now we added 190 miles of bumps and ruts. (No potholes. No pavement.) We had eight more hours of dirt to go, if we were lucky. It’s amazing what we can do when we are young. Today I would have turned around and gone home. Even then we most likely would have, had we known what was ahead; a broken transmission, a night in a refugee camp, a tow by a bus into a town to awaken a drunken Chinaman to repair the car. Oh, did I mention the cobra?
Life is an adventure filled with wonders. How grand it is to re-experience all this only in memory. But how often in life do we almost complete a goal only to find more challenges ahead. The important thing is not to quit. “Quit” is another English word that can sometimes mean the opposite. “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” “Quit” meaning to be resolved. I Corinthians 16:13.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 24, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574