Do the mountains break my car? A lesson in TRUST.

first day trip into the mountains w/ the car

I think the mountains are out to get my car.  Or maybe my car doesn't appreciate that every time we get it fixed, we almost immediately take it up grueling hills to altitudes above 13,000ft.  Whatever the reason, other than 2 exceptions, I've yet to take the car successfully up into the mountains without coming back down with significant problems.  Sigh.  My most recent trip, I honestly thought we would have to leave the car by the side of the road.

"The accident": getting hit by a dump truck on our first outing in the car

For a long time after purchasing the car, I blamed myself.  We didn't know enough about cars to recognize looming problems when we bought it.  I don't know how to judge a mechanic's character and abilities well enough to pick a good one.  Etc., etc.  Now I've come to realize that part of the problem is just choosing to live in Bolivia!  A good friend of mine has a relatively new car in good shape that has been in and out of mechanic shops the last few months with recurring problems.  Co-workers of mine spent months researching cars and finally chose one nicer and more expensive than ours and not more than a week after buying it, it was in the shop.

washing mountain dust off the car

It feels cliche to me sometimes to talk about how God is teaching me something beautiful through trials or struggles or difficulties.  I can't always relate to others' stories of gratitude for difficult times because to me, the difficult is just that: DIFFICULT.

Christmas Day 2014 mountain exploration

And then I finally got it.  This last trip to the mountains was the final straw that helped me understand what in the world God has been trying to get through my thick skull the last year+.  Last weekend, a friend of mine and I drove up into the mountains for a picnic, to explore and go for a swim in a pool under a waterfall near the road.  As we climbed up higher and higher, the car began to struggle with the altitude, losing power, but we made it all the way up and over a mountain pass (around 13,500ft) without much trouble.

the hills we wound up in the car on the most recent mountain adventure

It was when we turned the car around to go back that the real troubles began.  Driving back up a slight hill back towards the pass, the car suddenly died.  My friend pushed and it started again.  We hit a little dip with big rocks and had to slow down, and it died again.  Push. Start. Push. Start.  After a half a kilometer and lots of expended energy, the car was on a flat and needed to get over a final small uphill to coast down the 5,000ft between us and Cochabamba.  At the top of the hill, a huge party was going on, celebrating a new project in the campo.  Dozens of large trucks, cars and motorcycles lined the road, leaving a narrow gap between both sides for one car to squeeze through.  No way we were making it through, pushing uphill, let alone weaving past all the obstacles, people out in the road and traffic coming up over the hill from the city.

The small hill in front of up seemed an impossible barrier.  My friend went to look for a few sober people among the party goers and I lifted the hood to jiggle a few wires in hopes that I'd magically wiggle the problem out of the engine.  I took a deep breath in, threw up a prayer without much conviction it'd be heard, and turned the key.  The engine roared to life without hesitation, and I crested the hill just as my friend, with 6 or 7 young men in tow, walked up the other side of the hill to help. 

BBQ w/ friend at a local campground

What I thought was altitude affecting the car was actually a much bigger problem.  The car jerked and sputtered whenever I tried to jump start it with momentum, so we ended up coasting most of the way down the 5,000ft into town, trying to anticipate the slight uphills in the road so we could keep our speed up enough to crest the hill.

snow camping

We finally arrived in Tiquipaya (a town next to Cochabamba) around 8pm and discovered that without a downhill, it was next to impossible to drive more than a block or two without the car dying.  I had to keep the motor revved so it wouldn't die, and tried to drive in the right-hand lane with my hazards on so when the engine did suddenly die, I wouldn't block traffic.  To make matters worse, there had been a big event in Tiquipaya that evening and everyone was headed back into Cochabamba, walking in the right-hand lane, so I had to keep the engine revved, avoid pedestrians walking in the dark lane and try to anticipate any stoplights or speed bumps that would interfere with the engine resolutions.  Sheesh.  We reached an intersection about 30 min from home, and the car died, half in, half out of the road and refused to start again.  After half an hour of trying, I was ready to give up.

It was 9pm on a Saturday.  Collin was watching Matias at my house and couldn't come help.  Any mechanic I knew wasn't working.  I had come to the end of myself.  We popped the hood in desperation and started fiddling around.  Within 5 minutes, a man walked over and asked what had happened.  Next thing I knew, he was splicing together wires, testing things out, and within 15 min, the car was working better than it was when we left for the mountains!  It might sound cheesy, but if the man who helped wasn't so tipsy, I would have been firmly convinced he was an angel.  His help was truly providential.

Driving the last half hour home, the motor purring under the hood, I had a sudden realization that maybe all these car breakdowns and challenges have been more than just God's way of cultivating patience.  I think He's been eager for me to see the challenge as an opportunity for Him to work.  When a situation seems impossible, rather than getting frustrated or trying to find a solution all on my own, He wants me to look for Him.  It's not about ending all the car troubles.  It's about using car troubles, and any other seemingly impossible situations, to be excited to see how God moves.

I no longer think it trite or unrealistic when someone gives thanks for a challenge or difficulty.  I get it.  It's all about looking to Him in eager expectancy, excited to see what He will do or how He will provide.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds..." James 1:2