Miracles We Can Believe In!

(this note comes thanks to Arnie Solvig- more stolen stuff is returned! Incredible!)

Miracles We Can Believe In…

Just a few short days ago, we shared with you the dramatic eventsof our robbery at the beach. Well, many of you have prayed and God hasanswered in a truly miraculous way. The Carte de Sejours (ID cards) ofboth Steve & Alace Straw have been found and returned. ....

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Now for the rest of the story… We don’t believe in chance orcoincidence, but in an all powerful Jehovah Provider. I finished ourrecent email newsletter about the robbery by saying, “We are sothankful to God that no one was hurt and that this event was not asurprise to God.” Well, I could hardly believe that an email contactthat began 3 years ago would lead to the recovery of the ID cards.....

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In April 2006, we received an email from a Christian girl named Serenain ..Singapore..; she had a friend coming to ....Gabon.... and wantedto find a Christian fellowship for her. We soon met Sovia and began afriendship that was an encouragement to both of us. In October 2008,Sovia was leaving ....Gabon.... and invited us to a restaurant for agoodbye meal. At the meal, she introduced us to another local Christiangirl named Rachael Lydia. We really liked Rachael and after the mealoffered to give her a ride home. We exchanged phone numbers and had notheard from her until this afternoon.....

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Rachael comes into my office and begins to tell me how she received atext message an hour earlier from someone claiming to have found awallet with two ID cards and two SIM cards. He had entered one of theSIM cards in his phone and went through the address book and decided totext her about the ID cards (my note: Arnie had sold me his old cellphone- this is how Rachael's info was on my cell phone's SIM). Shecalled him back and said that she did not know the STRAWS, but she didknow some other American missionaries and would contact us. Amazingly,Steve Straw was sitting outside my office using the internet and Icalled him in to share the great news. ....

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We quickly called the person and made arrangements to meet him. Steve,Rachael, and Pastor Sangoye headed out to the rendezvous and soon afterSteve called me to tell me that they had gotten his wallet back with IDcards and all of his credit cards, etc. Can you believe it? ....

(my note: I gave this man some devotional material in French as well asa reward for his work. He was so nice to go out of his way for us. Hetold us that the same evening that he found the stolen items, hisdaughter became very ill. She became listless with a high fever, turnedyellow and, later in a taxi cab, died on the way to Lamberene. They haddecided to try to get her to a hospital 3 hours away, instead of takinga chance at a hospital within minutes of his house. Such a sad sadstory and a reminder of the poor health care system here.)

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We are so thankful to God that this event was not a surprise to God.....

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This email could not be complete without sharing about anothermiraculous act of protection on our trip this week. We sharedpreviously with you that we were taking our kids on a Homeschool tripto Lambarene. Well, our four families the Straws, Brokopps, Kings, andus loaded up into two vehicles for a much needed trip away.....

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About 70 miles outside of ....Libreville.... on a straight part of theroad, we saw 3 vehicles approaching. One vehicle was towing the otherand the 3rd vehicle began to pass the two. The small SUV that wasattempting to pass the others all of sudden lost control and sideswipedone of the other two cars. The SUV careened off into the bush andoverturned into the jungle. The other two cars went off into the otherside and one of them overturned as well. Our two cars were the 1st onthe scene and all of us men jumped out running to each of the vehicles.We were amazed to find everyone able to crawl out by themselves and hadno visible injuries.....


(my note: I jumped from the van and went down into a ditch towards themini-SUV. It was on its' roof and badly crumpled- I prepared myself forsome badly and, perhaps, gravely injured people. As I approached, Inoticed that the passenger was halfway out his side window when Iarrived and very shook up. He said he was not hurt but that perhaps thedriver was. Then, the driver appeared from the passenger window as welland crawled out. Incredibly, they reported that they were not hurt andthat no others were in the vehicle. At this time, Tim Brokopp, who wasin the trailing vehicle, made his way down into the ditch. He alsoqueried if others were in the vehicle. The two men stood up, looked ateach other in disbelief and shock. The driver, hearing the enginecontinue to surge and gurgle, crawled back in and turned the ignitionkey off. Tim and I made our way back up the bank to check the othercars.)

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The accident occurred right beside a T- Intersection with severalvillage houses nearby. Several villagers had also witnessed theaccident and had begun wailing in fear of what they would find. In lessthan a minute, there were 20 something people gathering about in totaldisbelief. It was obvious that part of their disbelief was seeing 3white guys running into the jungle and mud to help rescue the crashvictims. ....

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Before heading on our way, I shared with the group how we prayed forprotection before our trip and that it was God who had protectedeveryone that day. As we left, we praised God for his continuedprotection and an opportunity to be His witness.....

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We are so thankful to God that no one was hurt and that this event wasnot a surprise to God! ....Arnie, Cheryl, Nicole, Stephanie, &Katie SOLVIG
God is GOOD!