We have replaced parts, been to garages in South Africa, Mozambique, dealers, privates, backyard mechanics - you name it. Even this week, I went to Toyota here trying to see what air conditioner parts they had in stock thinking about how to start replacing things. Of course, they looked at me and said, you can't get any of those parts here - you will have to go to South Africa. Sigh.....You may think we're soft - but at 110 degrees, driving around in a metal box in the blazing sun with a big windshield - it gets to 130 or more in the car and we have both suffered from symptoms of heat exhaustion / heat stress going about our business here - coming home flushed, dehydrated, ill at the end of the day plus all the security issues of driving around with the windows down. I have begged everyone that PLEASE, put some dye in so we can find the leak. (You can buy it at any auto-parts store in the states!) They all smile and say 'we can't do that here - it's not available'. Well - NOT TRUE!Wednesday at our team prayer meeting, I offered this up for prayer - I was at the end of my rope and didn't know what to do. I had personally spent hours trying to find the leak, plus all the repairs, fixes and we have a trip north ahead of us and I honestly didn't know what to do. So, I asked the group to pray for 'the air conditioner' feeling a bit guilty of the triviality - but I was truly at the end of my rope.
The next day, I passed by the last place that has been helping me to see if I could buy a gage assembly somewhere in Maputo and where to fill the freon tank I have (that's another story related to a refridgerator), and I figured I'd just take a tank with me and fill it from time to time on the side of the road until the leak got big enough to detect. My mechanic friend (Christos) didn't like that idea and said that he had a friend who might be able to help me. So, Christos sets up a time for me and we go to this new place - a little hole in the wall near Immigration but he has all the equipment. A nice German fellow who has been here since the late 1980's working on 
cars, and specializing in Land Cruisers and Land Rovers.
cars, and specializing in Land Cruisers and Land Rovers.We start talking and he looks over the car and says "oh, you have one of those fake Land Cruisers - the ones the United Nations made a deal with Toyota to make a whole bunch of them and Toyota cut all sorts of corners to make them cheaper to meet the UN specification. Arggggg.....I didn't need to hear that! I know it's old as the hills, with lots of miles, but now I learn that it is a fake!
Well, he says that the first problem is that during a repair somewhere along the line, someone removed the air dryer from the system - that is problem one. I am confident this would have had to have happened before we owned it as early on I wondered why it didn't have a dryer - figured it was just a foreign car deal! That is a common risk here with less reputable (and even reputable garages). You take your car in and it comes back with missing parts removed to fix other cars.
Problem two is that the car was designed for non-tropical climates and the compressor is too small but we can compensate with an additional electric fan on the front. Problem 3 is that I have a leak BUT he has the dye. So, together we look up the specifications for the system, remove and clean the system, and install new freon with flourescent dye. FINALLY!! I take it back Monday or Tuesday so he can find the leak and begin the necessary repairs.
I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama where there were many Germans who worked on the Space Program. I even worked for a German man who had a body shop and I learned to appreciate their attention to specifications and exactness. We had a saying in Huntsville that if you could find you a German mechanic, you would be set for life with your cars. I am thrilled to find what appears to be a competent mechanic in Maputo! After talking with him, I was reminded of another person I knew here (who has since gone back to the States) who chased a 4-wheel drive problem for ever and he said this guy was able to fix it. I had forgot about that until I got there and began speaking with the guy. And, like so many here, he speaks Portuguese, German, French, English, Italian....how I wish!
AND, there was another man there who has been in Mozambique for many many years who used to be working on a big agricultural project in Mocuba, right across the road from where our training center will be built. He gave me some pointers on water wells and things in Mocuba, which was an amazing contact as well. Thank you Lord!
So, it is an answer to prayer - one I made somewhat reluctantly because I felt it was so trival as compared to our seminary financial shortfalls, ministry issues, our pending trip, the unplanned team that is coming today, the mountain of work we are facing between now and leaving in July - I didn't know I could offer up an air conditioner! Why do we do that? He is a God of details who loves us. Just as I would want to try and help my own children with any problem they might bring to me...why would I think God is any different? How easy it is to drift off-target...
And, once more confirming, that you can get anything you need right here in Maputo, if you can just figure out "where!"
Blessings,
Dave & Ann
"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." Matthew 6:7-8
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