Oct 22, 2023 Crash

The Sunday after getting back from our trip, Matthew and Philip went ahead of us to church in the car, as per usual. The rest of us came later in the van...and not far from home we had a bad collision. We were going about 60km/hr when we beaned into another vehicle. As many have said before, it happened so fast! Melanie was at the wheel, and she responded in the best way possible, but it was just unavoidable at the speed we were (legally!) going.

All six of us were able to walk out of the vehicle safely, and so did the other guy. We did have to hunt around for our glasses. We were not injured seriously...we had some really sore muscles. We got muscle relaxant medications and had some x-rays done the next day to be safe...but other than some scratches and bruises we were all okay. So absolutely amazing. I am very thankful for the safety features built into vehicles nowadays! But more so, we are thankful for God's protecting hand over us! We traveled through much more dangerous places in PNG and were kept safe, and here close to home we are reminded again that we are still in His care.

Bye bye faithful blue van!

If you live in the GTA and need a tow, I would strongly recommend that you call your insurance company for a recommendation...or use CAA. Our van is still be held "ransom" by the towing company that showed up at the scene. They seem to think that they can be paid $100 a day for storing it (against our will). The first two days they gave me the runaround instead of letting me sign a release paper and tried pressure me into fighting my insurance company Fortunately the insurance company stepped in and is the one dealing with them now. They are taking the towing company to court. It's certainly a slow process..it's been over ten weeks already!

Today I finally got a minivan from the rental company...to say that they are hard to come by these days is a bit of an understatement! Occasionally we've needed to ask other people to pick up a few of us, since Nathan needed the car and we can't exactly fit 7 of us in a car or SUV.  That's over 10 weeks so far! It is annoying to have to delay being able to buy a van (and have one of our rentals overheat and die on us) but we put it in perspective. We are all ok...a bit of hassle and waiting is not much of a problem compared to what could have been. 

This accident reminded me most of all that God has given us all more time here on this earth to do His work. When he is ready he will take us home to heaven...but for now he wants us to keep busy here.