A Very Close Call

Today was our last day of diving off Bunaken. The weather was questionable when we left, but the skipper assured us it's changing for the better, that the weather forecast for the day was only light rain. Connie, my friend visiting from the US decided not to go diving today due to a headache, and Marion, my colleague, thought she'd just snorkel around this area today, once the weather cleared up.

The hour-long trip over to the island wasn't too bad. We dived*, possibly my best dive in the 14 years I've been scuba diving, and then I stayed on the surface, seeing that my flight is at 10 tomorrow morning, so a second dive would cut into the 24-hour rest period.  Once the other three divers surfaced, we were told we're heading back right away since the weather was changing.

We were in a smallish scuba boat with just two little outboard engines. About 20 minutes into the trip, the sea got VERY rough. Some of the waves were about 20 feet tall, according to the skipper. It's plain scary when the wave behind the boat is much bigger than the boat itself. Fortunately, those were rolling waves, so they'd literally just lift us up and plop us down with a bang! But some hit us from the side, and sent some gear flying.

You know you're in trouble when the crew turns the boat around, then try going in a third direction, simply following the waves. The boat itself was hardly moving; the little propeller engines were worthless against the force of the storm.

You also know you're in trouble when the crew start yelling. (Fortunately, our dive master, Ken, was as cool as can be. If it weren't for that, we'd all be panicking! But he was going back and forth from the bow and the stern, trying to problem solve.) The skipper, Simon, suddenly gestured to us four divers to shift to the other side of the boat to shift weight... He didn't have to say a word! We moved like we had rehearsed for days!

I asked Yori, an Indonesian girl who was with the two Indian guys in the second dive party, what the skipper was saying. All I could understand was the word for "Help!" She was smart enough to say that they were speaking the Manadonese dialect, that she wasn't able to follow. But later, she told me that he was yelling to the rest of the crew to pray.

I didn't need anyone to tell me to pray. I was sitting there holding on to whatever I could, praying for God to calm the storm. The next moment, four life jackets come flying out from under the dive tanks, landing RIGHT at the feet of each one of us four. I kid you not. It was surreal! We looked at each other and immediately put on the life jackets.

The sound of the wind and the waves was deafening. As was the wind against the roof. Until the roof blew off with much of the wooden structure with it! Amazingly, no-one was hit by any of the poles! At that time, I told the rest of our group that we should probably get our dive booties on and get ready to grab our fins. But dive master Ken, who had seemed calm the entire time, suddenly yelled, "Put on your BCDs!" Which we did, of course! Afterwards, we laughed so hard at one of the guys who said he had forgotten so many of the little details regarding diving, but in that moment, he remembered right away how to manually inflate the BCD. Ken grabbed a phone and called for help. Then he told us to prepare to go overboard. (He said later he was CONVINCED the boat was going to capsize.)

Suddenly, there was a very loud thump or three, and our boat came to almost a complete stop! We had hit a reef.

Ken told us to take our BCDs and fins off but to keep our dive booties on, and to grab what we can and walk to shore. We grabbed towels to stay warm (thinking we were on an island where we might not find people!), and we were given some bottled water, which I think none of us opened, saving it for later, when we'd be stuck for the night? I was very thankful that I had a dry bag for my camera, and even before, I had decided to take the bag overboard with me with its own life vest, if need be!

We got off the boat, and we started wading through beds of sea urchins, through sand that was like quick sand, where we were stuck all the way to our knees at times, through mangrove forests, and finally (maybe close to an hour later?) we hit dry land. Then we learned that we were, in fact, right at the end of Sulawesi, rather than on one of the outlying islands, which meant that there were people nearby... We weren't going to have to survive on a remote island for the night, after all! (We weren't sad about that.)

We walked past homes out in the bush, through coconut plantations and past lots of cows. (Funnily, I kept thinking of beef rendang, my favorite Indonesian dish, which is beef with coconut. But that's beside the point.)

It "just so happened" that we ended up only about a kilometer or so from the house of a cousin of the skipper, where we could rinse out our booties as part of the marsh we waded through was full of sewage! From there, we walked to the main road, where we barely had to wait five minutes before the cars from the dive center (more than an hour away by road) arrived. We were whisked off in one vehicle while the men in the other vehicle headed to the boat to salvage what they could and to try and tow it to a safer spot.

All along the drive home, you could see the damage from the freak storm everywhere, with trees blown down, power lines being downed by some of those trees, and small roofs blown off. It was bizarre to think we were in the water when the worst of storm hit!

By the time we reached the dive center, the waves were still growing bigger, and were pounding the buildings. The dining area, which is right on the water, was hit several times, so much so that we had dinner in the back kitchen tonight.

But we were safe, dry, clean. And alive. I have no doubt that God heard our cries today. Though he didn't calm the storm, he provided a safe passage through it, he kept the boat from capsizing (the crew thought that the fact that the roof blew off saved us from being flipped over by the wind). And despite all the craziness of the trek through beds of sea urchins, sinking sand, and sewage, we made it through unscathed.

Despite the craziness of the entire event, I never felt like any of our group panicked. In fact, I finally took out my camera when we got to dryish land and shot a clip of the rest of the crew emerging from the mangrove swamp. Through it all, we were still smiling, infinitely thankful that the boat didn't capsize...



* In case you're wondering, dived is indeed the past tense when you refer to scuba. Soon after I started diving, I was told that dove refers to diving vertically, as in "I dove into the pool." But I just looked it up, and from some of the reading, it seems that both are correct past participles, but that that dived is actually the preferred past tense for dive. There. Just in case you, too, were baffled by this.

Over the mountains and through the woods

... or so it felt, at least.

I was walking as fast as my feet could carry me, not having had time to put on my gumboots before I left the compound, nor to grab a jacket against the cold wind. I cut through strangers' yards, stopping to shake hands and ask, "Where's Mrs. Sawe's place?" They'd point me in the right direction: a footpath that led through marsh land. At the worst part, my feet sank into the muddy water up to my calves. But I kept going, determined to find this house where I was to meet with someone in distress.

As I sloshed my way to the little iron-sheet house, I kept praying for wisdom and discernment. (I had just studied the passage in Genesis 41 this morning where God's presence was with Joseph, resulting in him having wisdom and discernment!) Some time later, I sat on the lawn with a young woman crying puddles on my shoulder while sheep were grazing all around us and frogs croaked in the adjacent swamp.

And then she started sharing...

"Be a peacemaker," I had sensed God nudge me earlier as I set out on the safari to find my young friend.

"Show me how, Lord," I had replied. This issue is far bigger than I, bigger than my limited understanding. It forces me to keep my eyes on God for direction and understanding. "Reveal it to me through your Spirit," I remembered yet another passage from this morning's study. (1 Cor 2:9-10)

This journey will continue in the days to come, and I'll continue to cling onto Jesus' words in Matthew 5:9, "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family." (The Message)

Thank you for praying for continued clarity in this situation.

I found a gun in my car today. Seriously!

So I found a gun in my car today. Not my car, really, but the car someone's graciously allowing me to use during my stay in Iowa. Danette's house (where I'm staying) has only one garage, so I park on the street in front of the house. There's just one slight problem, which isn't huge in this part of the world: The car cannot lock. Not from the outside, at least. Not if you want to be able to unlock it again.

Anyway! I had used the car last night for Karen and my trip to the movies, so I know that there were no strange objects in the car by the time I parked it in front of the house. But today, after coming home from working at Java Creek, I went to get my cell phone charger from the car... As I reached into the car, I noticed something sticking out from under the driver's seat. It was black, metal, and looked like the handle of something like a pistol! I kid you not!

I jumped back, then looked again. I didn't touch the thing. I could see it's metal, a bit scuffed up, and there was a plastic bag scrunged in under the seat next to the gun.

What the heck?!

I ran indoors and called the police. "My name's Adele. Who do I talk to to report a gun in my car? ... No, it's not my gun. ... The car's parked on the street in front of my house. ... No the car wasn't locked. ... My address is... Sure, I'll wait."

I didn't want to let me eyes off the car. What if whoever came back to get their stuff? I kept thinking, Was is real? Yes it was! Was it there last night? Not a chance! Even if I didn't see the gun, I would've stepped on the bag! Whose is it? No idea! Should I get my camera and go take a picture of it? No, stay away!

Minutes later, two cop cars pulled up. (One came just out of curiosity.) The guys walked over to the car, and as the first officer pulled the gun from under the seat, he said, "Ah! It's a bb gun!" He also pulled the bag from under the seat; it contained pellets.

Of course I felt stupid for calling the police on a toy gun, but believe me, it looked real. And I'd rather be safe than sorry. "It's OK," the officer assured me, "it looks real. That's why people use them to commit crimes. We'll keep it in case it was used in a holdup in this area. (!) If some kid just hid it in your car, they can come and pick it up from the station."

But the rest of the afternoon, I kept wondering why someone would stash a gun and pellets in someone else's car. Did they have to hide it in a hurry? A grown-up would probably think of a better way to hide it, wouldn't they? Was it some kind of a joke? What if it's not. What if the person comes back for the gun? Oh well.

In the end, worrying won't help. I've since decided to pull the car into the driveway. Danette's gone for the week, so it's not like it'd be in her way. But it would take far more for someone to walk into the driveway to open the car and look for the gun. And, after all, it was just a toy gun, so it's not like I have to apply for a witness protection program or something. :)

In fact, I think it's kind of funny being able to say, "Well, one day, I went to get something from my car and found a gun stashed under my seat..."

P.S. It's been snowing much of the afternoon and evening, so the car is covered in an inch or more of the white stuff, which helps, in a way. At least, this way, I'd be able to tell in the morning if someone had come back and opened the car door in the night... In fact, if the person would even just walk up to the vehicle, one should be able to tell from the size of the tracks if it's a child or an adult... Unless, of course, it snows much more after that time, or if the wind blows like they're predicting it will until early morning. Oh, well!