Drivin' in on bubblegum

After the Wrights flew back to Johannesburg, they sent us a sweet thank you note, mentioning that they had been bumped up to first class and that they felt just a little bit bad about us driving back to Lusaka. . . but only a little. This is the e-mail I wrote to them in turn:

Dear Wrights,
You can count your many blessings that you flew home (in first class no less) and that you did not drive back to Lusaka with us! You are living right for sure! We had a blow out just after exiting the long, semi-grated, dirt road. Our spare, which was repaired a few day earlier, was flat. We put the spare on and pumped it up with our little cigarette-lighter compressor. We had to keep pumping it up every few miles until we hit a town where we found a roadside tire-fixer-upper
shack. The guys began chewing bubblegum when we drove up. After some active chewing, they took the gum out of their mouths and pushed it into the leaking hole and then took turns pumping up the tire with a bicycle pump. Soon, the renewed tire was back on our car and we were on the road again, craving gum. A few miles later, the OTHER rear tire went flat. Again, we limped into a town and found the same type of tire shack. They repaired one tire (no bubblegum in that town) and sold us a spare, albeit it was too small and had a bulge, but it was our only option! We know where all the roadside tire shacks are from here to Livingstone! All-in-all, we had five flats and it took us 12 hours to get home. We were so unhappy to drive home in the dark with bad tires, but we had a prayer and our guardian angels exhausted themselves once again. The next morning the the tire we had prayed over (the bubblegum repair) was so flat that it couldn't hold air. Our tiny, bulging spare was the saving grace which got the car into the Lusaka tire shop. They gave us a new tire and a realignment at no charge because of their bad spare tire repair and our bad road trip tale. We also bought two new tires. Next time we will fly to Livingstone! All was not lost, however; we got three referrals for our Lusaka Elders through meeting so many nice Samaritans along the road. (The Samaritans and the referrals!)

We too enjoyed getting to know you both. Thank you for
coming with us and even staying an extra day! We couldn't have
enjoyed it more! One of the greatest blessings of a
mission is the the extended circle of friends the Lord blesses us with.
Be sure to tally up our $5 per picture bill when you send the photos;
we will start planning on what to mortgage!

Good luck with all of your reports. Uggh! Thanks for helping us in Zambia.

love, the Pattersons

Elder Wright is a photographer and has promised to send us his photos of our venture. He kept upping the charge for them, so hopefully we will be able to afford to post a few soon!