Motorcycle Accident

“Thou hast kept me alive!”

 

Today, Friday, BletJaw left to see Jonathan, his son, who is sick. If all goes well he will return on Sunday.  We prayed together before he left.  I was so glad that he could take the motorbike and that it had not rained yet.

No sooner did he leave than a poor 18-year-old boy, SomPon, came to my door with a twisted and bent left wrist. He had wrecked his motorbike a little ways out of WahSueTah because his brakes went out on a steep descent! Consequently he went catapulting off the road and down a steep ravine! Indeed he was lucky to be alive, because later I saw the spot where it happened!

 

I go to work on the poor boy’s arm.  His radius, which is the bigger bone above the thumb, was broken and dislocated.  As if that was not enough it seems that the end of the radius had been driven down into his hand.  I was thankful that it was not an open fracture, but SomPon was in extreme pain. All I do is give a pain medicine and wrap his deformed arm with padding, then apply an ace bandage over 2 bamboo sticks that Tucker had prepared for me. This stabilized the arm for the rugged journey that would follow. My job now is to get him to MeDuGlow clinic, and what an amazing struggle lay ahead for us all!

 

Now to tell you the truth about our old truck: We had gotten it repaired in MaeSot last week to the point that it would drive. Though I was very hesitant about trying to drive it into BYT this time, we tried it anyway because we simply must have some more supplies. Some moments were very tense. It did make it in, but I concluded that it must have been presumption and our desperate need that pushed us to drive it. However, it is now my responsibility to get SomPon to MeDuGlow clinic!

 

It is 10:30 a.m. SomPon is sitting in the front seat with me. We have to cross two rivers just to leave our house. Even though it is mid October, it is still raining almost every day here, so for this reason we have trouble getting across the first riverbed. Next comes the mud hole, which resembles a swimming hole filled with very wet deep mud!  This stretches approximately 50 yards. On the far right side is a narrow dry strip, which is a little bit over 1 foot in width. I plant my right tires on that, but the left side has to sink deeply into mud. Right away we slid all four tires into the mud, as I tried to work the truck out it only sunk deeper in until it was high centered in the mud. I was not going anywhere. Oh how I wish BletJaw were here!

 

In a few minutes 3 men plus Tucker came on the scene and begin to push me backward. They are incredibly strong, and after rhythmically pushing and revving the engine, pushing and revving we finally got backed out of it. Now I must drive through again! This time my right tires must be as far out on that one-foot strip as possible. I failed to tell you that on the other side of that one-foot strip is a sheer drop off down a ravine!

 

I prayed and drove and prayed and drove with my tires spinning and the right tires just about hanging over the ravine! Tucker was standing in the back of the truck, and he said that he just couldn’t look for fear that we would fall over the edge because the truck was squirming and slipping and seemed like it would go over.

 

The rest of the way into MeDuGlow was very treacherous. The entire way was just plain terrible. At one point they were putting a strip of cement down. Now that in itself is great, but we must take a detour beside the wet concrete, going downhill on oozing RED mud, take a sharp turn to the left to avoid a tree and proceed to curve around. Most of the way is right on the edge of a cliff! I get out of the truck to inspect the supposed “Road!” That looks utterly and ridiculously impossible!!

 

“Oh, dear Lord,” I plead, “Send help because I am so exhausted of driving in such terrible conditions. There is always more rain and more mud. It looks so impossible – but not for You!  You know this young man needs to get to the hospital.”    I am so thankful for 1 Corinthians 10:13

 

A man working with a group on the cement saw me get out of my truck to survey the ugly scene.  He came up to talk to me, he asked me if I wanted him to drive. I said: “YES!” and silently breathed: “Thank-You Lord!”

 

He maneuvered that truck around in the oozing red mud right up next to the steep precipice. I asked him if he would still be there when I returned in about 2 hours because I knew that I could not drive back up  that dreadful place. He said that he would.

 

We stopped about 5 times because poor SomPon was so carsick. He finally got out and sat in the back of the truck. How hard that must have been on him because he was also in so much pain. All in all the trip in took us 3 hours.

 

Once at the clinic they just sent him on to Omkoi hospital without touching the beautiful splint that I had put on his arm. He will receive an x-ray there, and then he will have to go to Chiang Mai for surgery. My prayers are with him.

 

Now we are heading back.  Sure enough by the time I got to the dreadful place my friend was still there. I have no idea how he could maneuver that truck, straight up the oozing red stuff on the brink of the precipice. It seemed so impossible.  Once again Tucker could not look and I don’t blame him!

 

I have imagined that my friend today was an angel! In fact my angel was doing great things for me all the way today! Back we came to the next dreadful place with 50 yards of mud. Just as the man had brought us through the last bad place, this truck came through the 50 yards squirming the entire time and coming oh so breath-taking close to the precipice, but not going over!

 

How wonderful heaven will be without any bad roads!

 

Can you imagine my utter dismay when the very next day we had another patient to take to the same place! This lady was so sick she could not walk. She simply must be taken in. This time my friend was not there to help me. I drove that horrible place myself there and back! It is the utter truth to say that I myself could NOT have driven that part. It clearly was the power of God that took us through!

 

“Oh dear Lord,“ I cry in humble adoration!   “Thou hast kept me alive…by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong!” Psalms 30:3,7

This entry was posted in Updates. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *