Adventure with Tammy

Traveling with Tammy Swailes is always an adventure! Tammy is the European Region Director for INSTE and is our immediate supervisor and friend. She stopped in Hungary on Monday to see us on her way to do some INSTE business in Romania. Tammy asked me (Nancy) if I would like to go with her on Tuesday and return on Thursday. It sounded good, so I packed a bag and we headed out Tuesday morning for Romania.

Or trip to Oradia (in Hungarian Nagyvárad) was uneventful. Our two meetings there were really good and we enjoyed talking about what was accomplished over lunch afterward. Then we headed for Gherla for our next meetings. About one hour out of Oradia, there was a strange noise and the car lost power. Tammy pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant along the road and looked under the hood. Even I could see that the belt to the alternator had come off. We needed help. We started praying and God started working.

There were a few people waiting to be served on the terrace of the restaurant, so Tammy asked if anyone spoke English. A young lady said she did a little and a gentleman also offered to help. They were able to call a service garage in a village close by and tell them about our problem. About 15 minutes later, a mechanic arrived and was going to call for a tow truck, but we convinced him the car could make it the ten kilometers to the garage. As we followed him back for what seemed like hours (more like 15 minutes), we kept praying.

At the garage, a man who appeared to be the head mechanic spoke to us in English! He looked at the car, made some calls, and told us he found the right parts. It looked like the part that turns the alternator belt was broken. It would take about an hour, he told us. It did not look like they took credit cards as payment and we had not yet stopped at an ATM to get any Romanian money, so Tammy told him we had no money. You should have seen his face fall! Then she asked if she could pay in US dollars. He was very happy to say yes. So we sat down to wait.

After a couple of hours, they said the parts were still coming, so we took a little walk and took some pictures like this one of a goat herder and his flock.

We saw some storks, too. The best picture I could get was of this one on a telephone pole. (I am not as good a photographer as Tammy.)

By the time the parts arrived and were put on, it was five hours after the breakdown and far too late to make it to Gherla. We had to cancel our meetings there and drive back to Hungary. It was disappointing to have to cut our trip short, but we had many things to thank God for. One was that God gave us "angels" who helped get us to a garage even though neither of us knew the language or were familiar with the area. We thanked God that the mechanic spoke English, parts were available, that Tammy had enough money with her to pay for the repairs, and that they were finished that evening so we did not have the extra expense and trouble of staying overnight in a strange place.

Tammy says that, as much as she travels, she very rarely has car trouble. God is always watching over her and he was watching over both of us this time, too!