Travel adventures

Last weekend we had our national catalytic retreat, which I helped plan and run, in Barquisimeto. My first day of the retreat was Friday, and boy was that a day of adventure. This was one of those days where when people ask, "so, did anything crazy happen to you in Venezuela," I can say "yeah, there was this one day." So here it goes:

Friday morning I realized I had forgotten an extension cord from the office that I needed to bring. I didn't have time to catch a bus there and back before the Barquisimeto bus that I was planning on taking left, so I asked Bryon if I could borrow his moto. I got to the office, ran in, grabbed the cable, and couldn’t open the gate trying to leave. I fiddled with the lock for about 5 minutes before waking up Neptali, the student who lives at the office. After another couple minutes he was able to open the gate.

Heading out from the office I realized that Bryon’s moto, which had been having problems, seemed to be particularly bad now in that it was running at full throttle without actually even touching the throttle. Consequently, on the way home I found myself going downhill a little faster than was comfortable and coming up to a stop. I attempted to swerve around a car into the next lane but clipped the corner of the car and went down. Fortunately I suffered only minor scrapes and bruises, the car a busted blinker cover, and the moto required only minor repairs.

I coasted the rest of the way down and recommended to Bryon that he not try riding the moto that day. I got my stuff ready to leave for the retreat, slightly shaken and not really appreciating the day so far. I headed to the bus terminal to catch a 10 o’clock bus and waited patiently under the sign that clearly read “Barquisimeto.” At about 10:20 I started asking around only to find that in actuality the only buses to Barquisimeto left from the other side of the terminal.

I caught the next bus and was finally on my way. During the 9 hour ride I had time to reflect on the events of the day and thank God that He’s in control even when things seem out of control. This was good knowledge to have when I ended up missing the Barquisimeto stop and having to take a taxi back to finally arrive at the retreat.

The retreat itself was excellent. Students came from different cities around the country and they’re very excited about making an impact for Christ on their campuses. I’m excited to see what God does through them. Hopefully we will soon be making an outreach trip to one of the closer catalytic campuses with some students from Mérida. Pray that the visit will be encouraging for the students there and that students will come to know Christ during the outreach.