Accident

It happens to many missionaries sometime during their ministry; at some point in the many hundreds/thousands of miles they travel they have an accident which involves someone being hurt or killed.
Tim has been traveling most of the past three months; long days driving on dirt roads. This week in a remote village in southwestern Tanzania while traveling with our General Superintendent for the TAG, Tim hit a man on a bicycle. Even though it was unavoidable and not Tim's fault, it was still a traumatic experience.
I won't go into all the details of the incident but the injured man was taken to the local hospital and is recovering from minor injuries. God intervened in many ways that were obvious evidence of His protection and provision.
Tim paid for the man's bicycle repairs, bought him a new cell phone and the local TAG leadership paid for all the man's medical bills. Tim gave the man a gift of money equivalent to about $35 (several months salary for the average Tanzanian) and was released by the local police to continue his journey.
The man's family contacted Tim yesterday and asked him to come back to the village of Mpanda, "they wanted to have Tim's picture taken with the injured man". Of course, the real reason was to tell Tim that they needed more money. The opportunity to get money from a "wealthy foreigner" is a once-in-a-lifetime occurence and they take full advantage when it comes along.
Of course, Tim was innocent of any wrong doing and the man had been generously compensated; however, they knew that Tim would not want to go to court over the issue because he would have to stay in that remote village for an indefinite amount of time while the case was settled.
So, Tim gave them an additional "gift" (amounting to about $70) and they happily settled the matter in front of witnesses.
Also, in the course of the journey, he shredded a tire ($250 to replace) messed up a shock and had to stop and have it temporarily repaired; it will need to be replaced before long (an expensive item as well for the heavy duty shocks we use here).
Still, it could have been so much worse. We thank God for His protection.