Never a Dull Moment

So, today started out a little bit crazy... By 7:15 this morning, I had run along the beach, kept Sassie from being eaten by another dog, febreezed the dog I'm dogsitting, found and cleaned up his doggie doodle left on the living room floor, killed the largest cockroach I'd ever seen (more than 2 inches!!), gotten fresh spinach from the garden, been asked for a doll by a girl on the street, and talked to several people in Creole.

Maybe all of that should have prepared me for this afternoon's adventure...

Around 4pm, I left my house to go greet some visitors. They had walked up from the wharf because Trisha, who normally would have picked them up, had taken our friend Neil to the airstrip. I called Trisha who agreed to come get us and take us to the wharf to get the visitors' suitcases. So, we head down there and just as we arrive home with the stuff, Trisha gets a call from Neil, who's in the airplane.

The plane had HIT A TREE leaving our airstrip and knocked off one of its landing wheels!!!! Neil asked us to go to the airstrip and pick it up. They were still heading to their destination and were going to attempt a crash landing. Crazy!!!!

Matt and Bena took off on the 4 wheeler and Trisha and I and like 5 WISH guys piled back into the truck. The whole drive down it was thundering and lightening and starting to rain, and we prayed and talked and prayed!!! It felt like something out of a movie!

When we finally got there, Matt and Bena had found the wheel, and Matt took me over to show me the spot and the HOUSE that the wheel had hit!!!! The plane was a privately owned small plane being flown by a retired pilot, not the regular missionary (MAF) flights that we usually use.The pilot did not have much experience flying in Haiti and took off from the middle of runway instead of using its entire length like the MAF guys do. He didn't get enough lift and smacked the top of a tree. The wheel came off landing on the corner of a thatched roof shack and causing a huge hole in the ceiling. The people and goat inside the building all ran outside, unharmed, and rushed down toward the seashore.

Matt and I rode the 4-wheeler home dodging goats and pigs while lightening lit up the sky. Trisha called us with updates as we continued to pray for a safe landing of the plane. They got rerouted to Port Au Prince, since there's better safety equipment and hospitals there, as they attempted to land with only half their landing gear! Butch (who is in Port overnight waiting to bring a doc back here for a short trip) and Dan were asked to meet the plane at the airport. They arrived just in time to watch it come in, make a shaky landing, spin in circles on the ground, sliding off the runway and finally come to a halt!

Praise the Lord! No one was hurt! Whew! What a day!