Even in the best of times, car trouble is a difficult thing. But when you're in a foreign country, di not speak the language, do not have a local phone that works and do not have local currency - this makes car trouble even more stressful! This was the situation that presented itself to us (Nancy Juntunen and I) as we were going to our friends' house in Romania. But even in the trouble, God was ordering our steps! 

We stopped near a restaurant after a loud "CLUNK" in the engine. We looked under the hood and knew it was beyond our mechanical ability! (It doesn't take much!) We summoned a man nearby who - although he didn't speak much English - got the name and number of the nearest repair shop and called them for us, explaining the problem. A man from the repair shop came to check it out and drove with us about 15 minutes back to the shop. We were grateful for someone to help us get to a place that could really help us!

The problem was obvious, and similar to something that I'd dealt with about a year ago (not sure how to say it in English, but the "rolik" that turns the alternator belt had broken off the motor it's attached to... or something like that!) They said they had the part - but later we realized that this meant that the part was somewhere nearby where they could get it! They also said that it would be an hour - but we later realized that that didn't really mean 1 hour, either! But in the end, the parts were located, put in and we were on our way -- back to Hungary. It was late by now, and I wasn't willing to drive that far to our friends' in the dark in Romania. I'm not that comfortable with the roads!  We were there waiting for them to fix the car about 5 hours!

One of the funniest moments of the day: They said they'd get the part and be able to fix it for us that day and I said, "Great --- but I don't have any money!" The look on the repairman's face was priceless! It was true that I didn't have local currency (we hadn't stopped at an ATM yet, and the $15 worth of lei in my purse wasn't going to get us far!) But then I said, "I don't have lei, but I do have dollars..." And the repairman got a big grin on his face and "Dollars OK! Euro OK! We don't need lei!"

I was grateful to have Nancy with me for that trip. Having someone to share my nervousness of breaking down helped me! I am also grateful for the Lord planting those people along the way to help us get back on the road, with minimal pain and expense! God is good!