“We are going to crash!” I exclaimed to my wife and baby before the car hit us.
Since we arrived in Thailand, our only way to move around was by bicycle or asking the project’s career missionaries to take us in their car. Both options have limitations, especially when you have a baby. So, when our project leader offered us the opportunity to have a motorcycle, we accepted.
I had never driven a motorcycle before, so I took lessons and got my driver’s license in Thailand. The motorcycle gave us much more freedom to move around, buy food and go out to connect with others. Having a motorcycle in Thailand is very practical because the streets are narrow and there is a lot of traffic.
As the Pathfinder Club was soon to start, there was a lot of work to do. Having the motorcycle allowed us to accelerate plans. I was able to get out and successfully recruit people to help us, and the program was better prepared. You could see it in the results. More children started coming to the meetings.
One Friday, after a long and hard week, my family and I decided to go to a nearby park to receive the Sabbath. The park is beautiful and abundant in nature, so we thought it would be perfect to go there with our one-year-old son and have a pleasant and peaceful family time.
Having in mind that my wife and I needed to rest a little and prepare our minds for upcoming Pathfinder and health ministry meetings, we felt that welcoming the Sabbath in the park would be the best choice possible.
The setting and our time together were perfect, and we had a lot of fun. But it was getting late, and I wanted to be home as soon as possible to avoid driving the motorcycle at night. The traffic flowed pretty well. Then, just a couple miles before home. . . POW! . . . a car hit us. The driver was distracted, and instead of braking where he was supposed to, he actually started accelerating.
When my wife heard me say we were about to crash, she clutched our baby in her arms. The impact was tremendous, throwing me a great distance with my head sliding across the asphalt. Uédila and our baby fell on the asphalt and rolled.
The helmet saved my life that day, but it took a month to heal the bruises and deep wounds in my arms and hands. Uédila, who fell to her knees as she held the baby, bore a deep wound in one of her knees, for which she received six stitches at the hospital. It took a couple of months before she could bend her knee and walk again. And the baby? Well, his angel wrapped him in his arms, and he only had a minor scratch on his foot. God is amazing! Everyone around was surprised that nothing worse had happened. Looking at the video recorded by the dash cam of a nearby car, we see how God sent His angels to spare our lives.
Although we only spent a few hours at the hospital, my wife and I did not make it to the important meetings scheduled for the next day. The consequence? Our work was held back by a couple of months. God saved our lives that day while Satan tried to stop the gospel from spreading to the people who are the focus of the Central Thai Project.
We are glad to be alive and well, but we understand we cannot risk driving a motorcycle with our baby anymore, especially with the devil trying to stop us from doing God’s work.
We ask for your prayers and help to purchase a car to reach the Thai people more efficiently and safely.
Thank you!
