For our "God's Work in God's Land" travels in Israel, we had arranged through “a friend of a friend of a guy” to rent an older model Hyundai van. It was a bit small, but we crammed in all of our luggage plus eight team members.
The van served us well in our initial travels south from Tel Aviv to Beersheva, down through Israel’s “Grand Canyon” (Maktesh Ramon) to Eilat. On Saturday we drove up the Rift Valley along the border with Jordan, reaching our Dead Sea hotel. That night we drove up the winding mountainous road to Arad and back down again to the hotel.
The next morning we clambered back into our Hyundai, fully laden with all our stuff, plus the literature. We visited Masada and Ein Gedi, hiking for hours at both spots. In the early afternoon we drove past Qumran, hung a left toward Jericho, and began the ascent from the lowest point on earth up the Judean wilderness toward Jerusalem.
Sometime shortly after passing “Nabi Musa” and just before reaching the sea level sign, the adventure kicked in big time. As the undersized engine labored up through the desert, I clung to the right lane, downshifting from fifth, to fourth, to third. When I got to second (and we were maybe halfway up the mountain to Jerusalem) I thought we might be in trouble. The temperature gauge was rising steadily, though still below the red line.
I pulled over to the shoulder (thankfully, the Jerusalem-Jericho road is now a modern four lane highway) and announced that we’d have to wait for the engine to cool. I shut off the motor (which in hindsight was not the best choice) and the thermostat needle pegged and steam began emanating from the front of the van. In this model van, the motor actually is under the front seat, and pretty quickly there was smoke coming up underneath the seat and filled up the van. The motor was hissing, then a radiator hose let go with a bang and the radiator fluid spewed out on the ground.
By this time everyone was evacuating the van pretty quickly. I can’t say I have the exact sequence of events (especially the timing) exact, as everything went into slow motion. Sarah’s dad, Mark Smith, looked underneath and saw droplets of burning liquid falling beneath the vehicle. I hopped back into the van and rolled back down the hill 10 feet or so.
But the fire remained burning underneath the van. Mark grabbed the fire extinguisher, and shot the foam up under the right wheel well, then the left, trying to reach the engine under the front seat.
At some point Lori suggested that the luggage be removed from the back – and it’s good she did so when she did, as things heated up pretty rapidly.
A dark pillar of smoke curled far upward into the sky. Traffic going both directions slowed, but most vehicles kept moving by. A couple of Arab young men pulled over in front of the burning van and jumped out to help. One grabbed the fire extinguisher from his vehicle and began spraying the fire. Another took all the water bottles we had and poured out the contents on the flames, which by now were licking up inside the van. Over time, as the flames consumed the Hyundai, each of the four tires, then the spare, exploded.
[Click arrow button above to play video]
I called the van owner and told him that we had a significant problem: his van was being eaten by flames. He was immediately sympathetic, made sure everyone was okay, and told me not to worry; “everything will be okay,” he assured me. I told him the flames were growing, and none of our efforts to stop them were working, including the fire extinguishers. He told me he’d call me back in a few minutes.
Someone asked if I had called the police – and I realized I didn’t know how to make an emergency call in Israel. “Try 100,” someone suggested. A police dispatcher answered, and assured me they were aware of the incident and a fire truck was on its way. Since we were about halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho, it seemed it took forever for the fire department to arrive.
Two trucks responded to the call. One stopped on the other side of the barrier, dropped a hose across the highway, and started spraying water on what was left of the still-fiercely burning van. They finally closed down both lanes on our side, and traffic going uphill began backing up down the mountain.
Another truck came up on our side of the road and their crew joined the battle. They were successful in dousing the flames, but the van was already gutted.
The police showed up and wanted to talk with me. (My Hebrew was getting a great workout!) I laughed when they asked for the registration. “It was in the van,” I said.
Both the firefighters and the police officers were helpful. When the fire was completely doused, they opened the traffic lanes, took down my information, then left.
We were thankful everyone got out safely – and almost all our stuff. Mark’s aluminum walking stick melted into a pool of molten metal about four inches long.
In addition to the water bottles poured out on the fire, we also lost some sunscreen, my GPS cords (I did manage to grab the unit itself), and a bag of other cords (to charge the phone and my computer, a LAN cable, and a splitter for dual DC adaptors) that was in the glove box. And my new hat (sniff, sniff) which was on my seat got badly scorched and smells like it was thrown in a fire. We did manage to spare the broom and the car keys from the van!
I called the van owner back. He said he had arranged for a tow truck to come pick up the vehicle “to fix it.” I told him there was no fixing this van. He had difficulty grasping that his Hyundai was no more.
He also arranged for another van from a taxi company in Jerusalem to pick us up. It took almost an hour for Dov (the taxi driver) to get there, and when he did arrive he wasn’t happy with the agreed deal. In part this was because our destination was further outside Jerusalem than what he had been given to understand, so in the end we paid him a bit more than what had been negotiated.
Friday, May 8, 2009
We finally got to meet the van owner. For four hours we sat in the back yard of his home in the Galilee. Noam L. joined us for about an hour of that time. They all live on a moshav, and are very fine people: Noam the believer, and the owner and his wife, determined secularists.
After hearing the details of the burning van, the owner said, “Do you want to hear something funny? Last week my wife said we’re spending too much money on full insurance, so we dropped coverage on the Hyundai. But, it’s only money.”
The conversation changed to spiritual matters, and God gave us opportunity to give a clear gospel presentation to the couple. Both listened intently, and asked excellent questions. He said, “Who knows? Maybe God arranged for the van to burn up so we could have this conversation.”
(The original plan was for Noam to meet us at the end of the trip and drop us off at Ben Gurion – so we likely wouldn’t have met the family at all. We certainly would not likely have been at their home for such an extended period, nor gotten to meet their teenage son and daughter.)
We settled accounts regarding the van – he was fair in what he asked – and he’s hopeful we’ll do business again in the future. We’re hopeful he’ll join God’s forever family of faith!
Thank YOU for praying for us. We’re glad to be home. We leave 5/13 for France.
Every blessing in Messiah,
Wes and Lori
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