As we face the uncomfortable time of a delta outbreak in New Zealand, I remember an uncomfortable moment I faced with my daughter a few years ago, while travelling from Morocco to Spain.
At that moment we had to make a dicey decision. Was it going to be worth the risk? The sad fact was that my daughter and I were stranded in Spain. We were both so sleep deprived and exhausted, that the only hope was in giving a yes answer.
It had all began the night before on the Moroccan overnight train from Marrakesh to Tangiers. The first class cabin I had booked was much less than expected. The carriage contained no bunks, just bench seats and as the carriage filled up, there was no room to lie down to sleep.
Just before departure the speaker in the carriage roared to life and let out a high pitched scream, warning us that the train was about to move.
If you wanted to design a speaker to be the most aggravating speaker possible, this speaker would take the cake. If you wanted to design a speaker for hell, this speaker would fit the bill.
This turned out to be a night from hell.
As the train was moving it was possible to start falling asleep. But, just as one was about to descend into a much deeper state of rest, the speaker in the carriage would roar to life, telling us we were close to the next station. Every time the speaker came on, I would jump.
This went on all night and thirty minutes before we were due to arrive in Tangiers, I realised that we needed to find a way to get from the railway station to the port where we would catch a ferry to Spain.
In desperation I cried out, “Does anyone speak English”?
An American voice spoke up and offered to help us get a taxi from the railway station to the Tangiers port. This was gratefully accepted and a short time later we found ourselves in a taxi, safely on the road to the ferry terminal.
The ferry crossing to Spain proved uneventful and we looked forward to arriving in the Costa Del Sol where, according to TripAdvisor, we could get a bus to our hotel.
Now, here we were in Spain, stranded on a footpath outside the ferry terminal with no sign of a bus anywhere. And we had just been told that buses did not operate from this port and our hotel was 90km away.
We stood there perplexed.
After a short period of time, a stranger approached us and asked us where we wanted to go. We told him we needed to get to a hotel on the Costa Del Sol 90km away.
He said “I will take you there”.
I asked, “How much”, and he responded, “70 Euros” which seemed a fair price.
I looked at my daughter and thought, what other option do we have?
We then headed on a one to two km walk through the back streets of the port town, dragging our suitcases behind us, supposedly to this stranger’s car. His car turned out to be an beaten up old Peugeot.
The car didn’t look very road worthy, but we were so exhausted we just hopped in. I had a passing thought. Are we about to be kidnapped?
As it turned out, the driver was quite helpful and friendly. We were not kidnapped and arrived safely at our hotel in good time. On arrival at our hotel room, with much relief, we crashed and rested.
Trust in God
Sometimes you can be so tired and weary that you just have to let go and put your trust in God.
I look back on that journey and reflect.
God was with us when my daughter and I were on the train.
God was with us when the speaker in the train screamed.
God was with us when I asked for help on the train.
God was with us when we were stranded outside the ferry terminal in Spain.
Psalm chapter 46, verse 11
“The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
And it is possible that God could provide a complete stranger to get us from the ferry terminal in Spain, to our hotel 90km away in quick time.
Or was it a stranger?
Was it an Angel?