Larry and the Driver
From the Field July 26, 2014
In October of 2008 a visitation was carried out to the UMELC(which became the CLC of Myanmar) by Mission Board member Larry Hansen, Mark Bohde(who was a missionary in Thailand) and me. A two day seminar was held with attendance at 70-80. The executive committee of fifteen men was met with as well as having discussions with individuals. While this was an exciting first face to face contact, there was excitement of another kind also. Going at the time of year that we did we were hindered from flying into the city of Kalay for meetings, since it was the rainy season and the airport there was not accessible. There were a few things that happened on the rain-soaked roads going and coming as we travelled by car with angels taking the precautions necessary for our safety. I relate one.
Larry and I rented a car and driver travelling the Mandalay/Kalay route. I sat in the backseat, while Larry in the front was having good chats with the driver. We noticed that the driver stopped quite a bit along the road. Assuming he was getting coffee to stay awake we were not worried at first. At one point I noticed that the driver was getting quite jolly with Larry and seemed to be overly enjoying himself in the conversations. That was all well and good as one wants good rapport with a driver on the rainy, hilly roads. In the most recent stop once the driver got back in he was a little silly to say the least. As we started off Larry began to tell the driver we should pull over and Larry would drive. There was some swerving going on. As the driver refused, Larry reached over for the wheel and kindly said we should really pull over and stay the night somewhere. The driver jovially refused. From my perch in the back seat I was praying and leaving things to Larry and the angels. Finally, Larry got the driver to stop and we went to a house on stilts in a village and told of our predicament. Since it was dark and raining, the people let us sleep on their raised bamboo floor the night. Our driver had been imbibing liquor at his frequent stops.
The next morning we set off with the driver not acting as if anything bad had happened. But he didn’t talk much with Larry. Our lord gives His angels charge over us to bear us up.