An Eventful Journey Part 1

I think it was an opportunity for God to show his ability to work on our behalf, but at the same time it was more of an adventure than we had bargained for. I woke up the morning of our departure day still sick, my body ached, I didn’t feel like eating and my throat was sore. We continued with plans, saying hurried good byes, and working on last minute details.

I was worn out and knew I would probably be up most of the night, so I lay down on the couch to take a nap. I was in a sort of half asleep state when suddenly the couch began to shake. I froze, thinking at first it was just my imagination, but the shaking continued, and there was definitely no one in the room but me. I sat up and looked around to discover that the light fixture on the ceiling was shaking as well. Apparently I had experienced an earthquake. Suddenly I didn’t feel so much like sleeping any more. So much for preparing for the long night ahead with a little bit of rest.

With only a few hours left until departure, we still had to purchase traveler’s insurance for our trip. I got on Skype and called the company we usually use in America only to discover that they do not offer insurance to residents of Europe coming to America to visit. We hurried to the center of Skopje in the cold, slushy weather and crazy traffic, and got to the travel agency only to discover that they could not offer us insurance because we are Americans traveling to our home country. So, I can’t get insurance from America because I live in Macedonia, and I can’t get it from Macedonia because I am an American citizen. I feel like I’m in no man’s land. We had no choice but to proceed with plans without insurance.

Ten P.M. came and Sashe and Marija (our pastor and his wife) appeared to drive us to the Bulgarian border where a taxi would meet us and take us to the airport in Sofia where our flight departed at 6:55 in the morning. We had plenty of extra time, but it was snowing, in the middle of March mind you, and showing no sign of stopping. And Sashe’s car had summer tires. At first it wasn’t that bad, the snow was wet, and it wasn’t sticking to the roads. But the further we went, the more it stuck. We stopped at a toll booth, and Sashe asked the worker how she was doing, and made a comment about the beauty of the snow, and the romantic atmosphere it created. The woman laughed, and handed us our change. We moved on only to discover that the woman had been distracted laughing at Sashe and had given us too much change. We stopped, and Marija went back to return the change. On we drove, the roads getting worse and worse. I fell asleep and next thing I knew I woke up to discover that we were swerving uncontrollably around the round, with other cars around us. We all started praying, and came to a safe stop just before hitting the car in front of us. But, just a couple of cars ahead there was an accident. The cars had collided and several people were injured. The road was blocked and we had to wait. While sitting there we quickly came to the realization that if we had not stopped and gone back to return the money to the lady at the toll booth, it would probably have been us in the middle of that accident.

Time was ticking away, and the snow was still falling. We contacted the taxi driver in hopes that he could come meet us at the other side of the accident because the police were saying it might be two hours before the roads were cleared and we could pass. Unfortunately, he had come in a four wheel drive instead of his usual Mercedes because of the snow, and did not have the necessary paper work for that vehicle to cross the border. He could only wait there, and we could only wait for the
accident to get cleared away. In the mean time, the snow continued falling.

Part II will follow...