I realize before I do anything else, I need to clarify the one picture from last week. I had said it was a picture of the group here and you may have been trying to figure out who everyone was. Obviously Terri and I are seated in the front, and then from left to right in the back is Andrew and Jonathan with one of their studies, Eno. He comes here for his study and then they do something together like watch a movie or play some games. He is continuing to make fine progress, commenting on his own at the meetings. Terri was holding the cat, but it was past the chick’s bedtime, so it’s not in the picture.
After letting Andrew go to Kaituma last week, I decided I was sufficiently healed to go again (I didn’t decide for sure until Wednesday morning when I was able to comfortably put my foot into a long boot). The trip there was thankfully uneventful, it didn’t rain until just as I was getting to Kaituma. I went by most of the ones who come to the study to let them know I had arrived, and then went and visited a couple we had studied with a number of years ago.
When I got to where we have the study I was happy to see Monica there waiting. She was the only one I hadn’t alerted since her shop is in the other direction and I didn’t feel like driving through the rain to go there. I asked her if someone had gotten in touch with her to let her know I was there, or if she just came expecting someone would be there. She smiled and said the man she is with had called her to tell her he saw me pass by on my bike on the way in. She said he told her he had seen one of the young brothers pass by. We both laughed and I told her to be sure to thank him for me.
The lesson we had done was dealing with imitating Jesus’ faith and courage. We were reminded how Jesus was strengthened by his knowledge of the scriptures. So I asked the group how knowledge of the scriptures can help us. Sharon commented on how once you learn what the bible says, you know it’s the truth, and you just have to speak up when someone says something that teaches otherwise. It was nice to hear her express her conviction.
It had rained quite a bit while I was in Kaituma, so I had to drive slow on the road. I was about half an hour ahead of where I had been the last time I went, so I was happier about that. There is a very bad spot in the road just before you reach Fallstop. I had made it through on my way out, but coming back, I got in a deep hole and stalled the bike and kind of went over. The rut was so deep you couldn’t fall over too far though. I got myself righted and started the bike, but it didn’t want to come out of the hole. I was pushing and revving the engine, when the chain made an ugly sound as they say here, and it became clear that the engine was no longer connected to the rear wheel.
I tried to push and pull it out, but was not able. I waited for a bit and a vehicle came through and stopped and a man helped me get the bike out of the hole. While we were dragging it, the back tire was just slipping. We got it somewhat out of the mud and I told them I could manage from there. I thought the chain had probably come off the sprocket (there is a chain case which covers it so you can’t see it). When I took the chain case off, I discovered that the chain had broken. I was almost to Fallstop and it was getting dark, so I pushed the bike to a shop where I could see. I had no repair links with me, so I could only hope a vehicle would pass by on the way to the Ridge and give me a ride so I could get repair parts and come back for the bike.
It kept getting later and still no vehicles were passing so I went to the government office of mining that is there and asked if they had a place I could stay the night. They said they had a spare room that I could stay in and gave me a set of clean sheets for the bed. Early in the morning a four-wheeler stopped by the shop and I asked the two men riding it if they were going to Matthew’s Ridge. They said they were passing through the Ridge on their way to the back-dam. At first they said they didn’t have room, but as they were getting ready to leave they motioned me over and told me to climb on, and gave me a ride back to Matthew’s Ridge.
Everyone at the house was happy to see me in one piece as they had been concerned when I didn’t come home Wednesday night. I gathered up what I needed to fix the bike and then kept watch for a vehicle heading for Kaituma. After a bit a cruiser was passing so I waved it down and asked if it were going to Kaituma, which it were, so I asked if they could give me a drop to Fallstop, to which he said that would be no problem. I was able to repair the chain and head for home. Before I made it back, the luggage rack on the back broke and my box for carrying supplies fell backwards causing the rear fender to rub on the tire at any sizable bump, so I had to drive back subspeed. All in all, just another story.
On a more positive note, I will share some highlights from our service report for October. Our Sunday meeting attendance average for the month was 80! I am in the process of making a couple of more benches (if you build them, they will come). Our publishers averaged 25.2 hours and 3.3 bible studies. The total number of studies reported was 77. Between Terri and I, we reported 34 studies.
For this week’s pictures, I have one I took of Michael and Evelyn after our studies on Monday. He is holding the largest eddo I have ever seen. I commented that and he said it was the largest one he had ever seen as well. I’m going to have to ask them how it tasted seeing as it was so large. The other one is Terri with the latest up-grade to our house. Now she has an actual oven to bake in.
