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Nica Update: Motorcycle Accident
Dear Family and Friends,
I'm writing to you tonight, as we were reminded today of how dependent we are on God and His protection. We will be leaving on a bus for Honduras in the morning to see our niece who teaches at the International school in Tegucigalpa. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with her and her friends there. We are really looking forward to this trip.
Today, however, I (Lisa) was in a situation that has shaken me up a bit and has led me to ask you to pray now for our upcoming trip. Rebekah and I were taking a Nicaraguan student who has become a good friend of ours home – she lives just down the road from us. I needed to make a left turn onto her road. A motorcycle came from behind me to pass me on the left as I was turning left and ended up crashing on the side of the road. We were relieved to see that he got up and walked toward us, but we were also concerned about what this may mean.
Our Nicaraguan friend referred to the fact that I was an American and that I was in a very vulnerable position. The Nicaraguan motorcycle driver came to my window and was very angry, however, he was speaking in English – which made this situation much easier. He said that he was going to call the police because I broke the law. I knew that I had not, however, I also knew that it would take quite possibly hours to get through the process with the police. Dayana told me that the same thing happened to her brother-in-law last week and that the police took him to the station in downtown Managua for questioning. I knew that Dayana was right – I was vulnerable and besides that I was in the middle of packing to leave for Honduras and did not have hours I could spend with the police. I told the man that I would pay for damages to his motorcycle and asked him to let me know what the damage would cost him. He checked out his motorcycle and returned to me telling me that it would cost him $100 to fix his motorcycle, giving me some details in regard to all of the things that were wrong with it. I went home to get the money and copied off a receipt for him and me to sign agreeing that there will be no more compensation for the accident solicited(this was a suggestion from my house helper, Mercedes).
There is certainly a part of me that thinks I should have argued a bit with him about the amount of money. I wonder if the police would have been involved, if justice would have been done. However, I do have a sense of peace about this, certainly learning from it as well. What is special to me is that I see God so clearly in this. If the man would have been injured or killed, I would have automatically gone to jail. In Nicaragua, we are guilty until proven innocent. Another evidence of God's grace was that Dayana was with me to coach me through this and talked with the man as well. My house helper walked me through how to make sure that I have a signed sheet of paper to facilitate termination of the financial responsibility. And I remembered (by God's grace) to ask the man to give me the piece of paper that he wrote my license plate number on when he was threatening to call the police. We also were not hurt physically. And it was a great opportunity to pray with Dayana and Rebekah in the car in the midst of all of this. I was thankful that God prompted my heart to do so, as this is what I want our kids to see consistently – that we just go to Him with all things big and small and watch what He does.
And I believe that He used this situation to lead me to write to you to ask you to pray for our travels to Honduras. I find that the longer we live here, the more comfortable we become and far fewer things shake us up. However, God desires for me to live my life in moment to moment dependence on Him regardless of whether I feel that I need Him or not. The reality is that I do, we do, and each day truly is a gift that we receive.
I felt quite violated in a number of ways through my interaction with this man knowing that I did nothing wrong and that I needed to give him money that we could have used in so many other ways. But then Dan, who also recognized the injustice of the situation, but is always able to offer me a perspective that leads me to peace said to me, "Lisa, a hundred dollars to us does not even compare to what it is to him. You helped him fix his motorcycle and perhaps he will have some pain from the fall he took that he needs to deal with. We can look at it now as an opportunity to give whether it is fair or not." God brought healing through his words, reminding me once again how loosely He calls us to hold onto all that we have which is really all His anyway.
So, as we travel tomorrow and on Sunday, would you please pray for our safety. We travel tomorrow from 5 AM to 1 PM and on Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM. We look forward to our time in Honduras very much. And we are thankful for the opportunity.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We pray that you too would have a happy and safe Thanksgiving as you travel to be with those you love and who love you.
Peace to you,
Dan, Lisa, Rebekah, and Will Van Zoest |
