Missional Living can be quite frustating at times. This account is from Sam, a good friend who is serving with his wife in Eastern Europe/Western Asia.

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

How a love hate relationship turns into a simple hate relationship.
Sam and the green machine.

Yesterday we were at a graduation picnic in the North of Moldova and we got rained on twice. The second time was during the meal and we just closed up and went home or tried to. The roads got wet on the surface and were slicker than snot (We wondered why Sasha kept asking if we had front wheel drive). Most of the cars in our caravan had to be pushed and everyone got so muddy. The students are all young men and they took off their shoes and pushed and got muddy and then got sprayed with mud from the cars and basically just had a good time. We ended up driving/being pushed backwards down the muddy road to get out. During all this one of my tires got damaged but since we could not even see the tires for all the mud who would know. I found out on the trip home since I could not drive above 45 mph and still maintain contact with the steering wheel. The trip home took 4.5 hours instead of 3 hours. Tire balance has to be very bad to notice on the roads here.

Today was a different day (translation– not good) like when you eat something new and you say it was different. Early this morning I needed to wash the car and get the tires checked. On the way to the car wash I met a bicycle. I got hit by a young Moldovan riding too fast this morning and was able to spend the rest of the morning in the police station. It was my fault since I was turning left and the bicycle was going straight. He was behind a stopped bus that was discharging passengers and as I turned he came from behind the bus and struck the side of my van. I never saw the bicycle until it was up close and very personal. The bicyclist was a young man and he broke his sunglasses and bent his front tire and had a cut on his nose but seemed OK. The police and an ambulance came and my day became more interesting.

Visiting with police after an accident is not the same as having a chat on the side of the road and the police station in a communist country can be intimidating. The building was only about 300 meters from the accident and the police came within an hour which is very good. The ambulance which in Russian is called ‘fast help’ was there in 30 minutes. I am very glad that there were no serious injuries but when a bike meets a van there is a clear loser. I found out later that the bicyclist had been involved in another accident with a vehicle in the city.

God takes care of his servants who pray without ceasing. I called Harriet and asked her to call a friend whose ministry is to police and military personnel. Harriet started praying and called Edward who just happened to be in the city. He met us at the police station before we went in to the investigating officer.

The investigating officer was a student of his at the academy which probably kept me out of an international incident. I have always said that I wanted to visit an Eastern European jail but was thinking of having a Bible in hand and being able to walk out after a few hours. I speak Russian well—OK, I speak Russian with a bad accent. The police speak Romanian but understand Russian. They are very busy and don’t have time to work with my accent. Edward speaks Romanian and has the time to work with my Russian. I told him what happened and he did the rest of the talking while I exercised faith. I trust Edward and the police to do their job and I trust God to protect me and I pray. Harriet is sitting outside the police station praying and getting our teammates and Eduard’s wife to pray as well.

Not a good start to the day. But it was only the start of my relationship with our green machine today. After a morning with the police, I still needed the tires balanced and the car washed. (In other words, nothing but meeting the bicycle and visiting the police had been accomplished all morning—9:15—12:00) We set off for the tire place. There is no ‘Goodyear” store but there is a metal building that looks like it used to be the trailor part of an 18 wheeler where I had my rim straightened a few weeks ago. Yes, the roads are bad here. I have broken 2 rims and bent 2 others so bad that the tire would not seal.

We ask the repairman to rotate the tires and balance them and we go across the street to spend the next hour. When we returned he was having problems getting the lug nuts back on the stems on one side and he is not anxious to do the other side. This does not look good. One of the tires has a bad spot and could not be used so he finds another tire in the correct size at the bottom of a stack– of course.

He changes and balances the new (well new for me) tire and tries to tighten the lug nuts. He can not get the lug nuts back on the car. My car is looking less and less attractive. He goes into the yard behind the shop and can not find anything to help. He gets a grinder and cuts off the parts of the stems that will not accept the lug nuts thread.

Yes by now I am thinking that theses lug nuts will make all of us nuts. But this is just the middle of the story. Finally everything is complete. We pay him all the money we have with us. We were not expecting to purchases another tire. Harriet visited 2 ATM’s near the shop but neither worked. We could drive to another ATM but the car was missing a tire and had malformed lug nuts (or the car was nuts and soon the driver would be).

We get in the green machine and go for a spin. No shaking everything works. We come home and eat a late lunch after being gone all morning. We still need to wash the car. We get some rags and clean the inside ourselves; opting to save money after all the time and money spent this morning. The mats are caked with dried mud as are the brake, clutch and gas peddles. The first part is done and we start out for the car wash for the outside.

We get almost 200 meters from our apartment and hear a bad sound. After car repairs all unusual sounds are bad but this is metal on metal. I get out and Harriet drives so I can look. It is no different when I raise the hood and look I have no clue what I am looking for (yep that looks like a motor) except in my green machine the motor is under the driver’s seat. I remove the front left hub cap which requires removing a zip tie (yes the roads are sooo bad that a hub cap will fall off if you don’t use a zip tie). When the hub cap comes off one of the lug nuts falls on the ground. This also is not a thing that brings love to my heart for the green machine.

For reasons that come from deep within what I call the mind of Sam I touch the stem that does not have a lug nut attached. It disappears. The power of a single touch, something like the difference between $100 and $1,000– what is one touch. OK the tire still has 4 lug nuts. Let’s, go get a wash. Now instead of a clanging sound we have a scraping sound. The end of the stem that got pushed in by the mind of Sam is now scrapping something probably the brake system which is a worse sound than the first one.

Now I needed to remove the tire. We are parked in the sun and it is in the mid 90’s. I get out the jack and the lug wrench and jack up the car. The first place I put the jack does not raise the car enough so I have to lie down on my back and place the jack under the axel. The dirt and small rocks seem larger when I am laying on them. It works this time but I can’t remove the lug nuts since they were tightened by a macho Moldovan who wanted to prove his manhood. Yes, I raised the van too high and the tire is off the ground and is free wheeling. I lay back on the ground after Harriet reminds me that she told me I got it too high and we would have problems removing the lug nuts. I love it when my wife is right again.

Removing the lug nuts require more than strength it requires balance. Harriet has to hold the lug wrench while I jump on the end to loosen the nut. I am not as agile as I used to be in fact with my arthritis and hip it is difficult to even walk sometimes. It would have been a good picture. Harriet is trying to keep the wrench snug on the lug nut while I am trying to step up and the jump on the wrench.

Finally, we get the tire removed and see that there is no way to get behind the stem that is pushed in. We work on it with a knife and a screwdriver. I know that I, by my own hand (finger) have been screwed and am now nuts. We run out of patience and ideas. I have no clue which ran out first. I just know they ran out and ran away.

TV is good for the mind. I asked Harriet for some gum and sent her to the house (200 meters away) for a magnet. I saw CSI where they retrieved a bullet from a grate using gum and string. I chewed the gum until it was dry well since my patience had run away I did not wait long enough but soon the gum was very dirty and much dryer and it worked. Yes, it worked.

Now we just needed to replace the tire without hitting the stem that is not fastened and forcing it back into the brake. I tried to wedge a piece of wood (tooth pick) into the stem but could not accomplish that trick. I am feeling good from the chewing gum episode and don’t want to push it. Now we are getting somewhere.

Only 2 of the 5 lug nuts will thread. This is not good. Either the lug nuts or the stems are bad or both. It probably is both. The missing nuts are on top when I lower the van. The tire is slanted out at the top. This looks very bad. I get back in the dirt and jack the van up one more time. I rotate the tire and lower it for the last time. We keep switching the lug nuts and trying different stems except the one that we know not to touch. We get one more on very slowly and know that the stem will probably never accept another nut. I remove a lug nut from the other front tire and get one more on even if at the end it just turns.

The green machine is now in the car park and our trip tomorrow has been cancelled. There is very little love left in my heart for the green machine.

How do you tell the mechanic in Russian what part you need when you have no clue what it is called in English?
__________________________
Bob Pratico
Fides Quaerens Intellectum
(my Sojourn blog)