My first Tow Truck and then Taxi Ride

Today, Glenn and I had plans layed out where we could

 "check stuff off of our list".   

Well, the Lord had his own plans for us.

Leaving before the crack of dawn to avoid rush hour, (can you say 4:45am?), we took Patricia to the airport to catch her morning flight to the states.

Glenn and I had several errands to run in the city.  Our list was pretty long.  While driving downtown, our Hyundai Terracan started sputtering and "missing".  I looked at Glenn and said "this is not a good area of town to have car problems."  We pulled over to the local McDonald's parking lot.  Glenn opened the hood and determined that the "belts" were off.  We decided it would be best to call the insurance company for a tow.

Now, that is a first for us.  Glenn normally will put a band-aid on the broken part and limp to the mechanic shop.  This time, we decided to use the free services attached with our insurance policy.  Unbelievably, the tow truck arrived in less than 30 minutes.

It was a fancy tow truck at that.

Next, Glenn and I sat in the cab with the driver.  Not really made for 3 people, but it worked.

Once we got to Joel's Mechanic shop, it was time to roll it into the shop.

Guillermo unhitched everything and filled out the final paper work.  All in all, from the time we called the Insurance agency, waited for the tow truck, battled morning traffic to get to Joel's place, it took us just about 1 hour. Not bad for rush hour.

The car is in the shop.  Diagnosis - broken water pump. It just disintegrated.  We should get it back in a day or two.

So, for the next step, our plans changed.  Glenn decided to get a taxi and we would regroup at home.  We took Taxis all the time while living in Bolivia, however, because of the safety factor, we have NEVER taken a taxi ride here in Guatemala.  Joel called the Yellow Taxi Cab company and we were very pleased with the service.

All this to say, we had planned on visiting Helen and other missionaries this morning, but those plans were changed when the water pump broke.  And this was the first time that I had been in a tow truck and a taxi here in Guatemala. 

As we reflect on what happened this morning, we are SO VERY THANKFUL that this happened here in the city. It could easily have left us stranded several hours out of town this past week and could have presented a much more serious mechanical and safety challenge. 

"Thank you, Lord!"