On Dec. 9, a long rainy season finally ended, and Mary and Keith left their apartment in Yaoundé, Cameroon, for a trip to Ngoyla, the home of the Njyem people.After an apparently uneventful arrival in Lomie, they woke up the next day to discover the battery was dead! The local car repairman declared the alternator dead—not true, as it turned out—and proceeded to tear it apart and rebuild it. The difficult part was when he started using a hammer and chisel on it. Finally he got it back together again only to discover the REAL source of the problem. The alternator was hammered back into near-original shape late on the 11th under the light of a flashlight.
Now the Beavons were 216 miles away from any alternator that had not yet felt the blows of hammer and chisel. Praying for God's care, they continued their trip farther to the southeast, where we crossed a ferry and went into the home area of the Njyem people.They shared their food and fellowship, helping them to reorganize themselves for a new launching of the Bible translation movement that has been faltering in some degree since 1996.On Dec. 22 they drove back to Lomie and on the following day they made it to Yaoundé. God took their minds off the alternator, in part by giving Keith a tropical virus that gave them something else to think about. No sooner had they gotten back to Yaoundé than the battery light went on! Parked at our training center, Keith lifted up the hood and was amazed at what was missing: any sign of a belt to the alternator! Upon closer examination, however, he found loops of steel that once held the belt together.God chose to let us limp back with a car whose diminished capacities he knew about all too well. He let the abused and damaged alternator spin around with a belt that was ended up looking like fishing leader. The timing of the breakdown of the belt after the repair was synchronized perfectly with the end of the trip 400 miles later. Only God can do this.Mary read Keith’s thoughts when she said, “One thing about doing these old-fashioned Bible translation projects is that you get to see old-fashioned miracles.” This miracle of the alternator belt is as old-fashioned as the one related in Deut. 29: 5: “During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.” Truly, God is leading us back to the Njyem to bring them the joy of his Word!
A functioning fan belt!