2025 Faith Leap - Chapter 4: On the Road again

 2025 Faith Leap - Chapter 4: On the Road again

We recently watched this awesome video and had a great debrief - reflecting on the gift and purpose of trials and the need to look outside of ourselves, even when things are hard. The timing of this discussion turned out to be inspired. We have been blessed by this reminder time and again as we have needed to consciously choose to find the good.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" Romans 8:28

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Popped a tire an hour into our road trip to the West coast, leading to a 2.5 hour detour
• Bob learned a new skill (changing a tire)
• How many Georgian tire shops does it take to fix a tire? (for us: 6)
• We have not missed the paid squatty-potties
• We have a love/hate relationship with the new Highway.
• God helps us to see His goodness everywhere, if we are willing to watch for it

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Try playing our Glad Game (see last paragraph below), and then express your gratitude to God - the Giver of all good gifts ❤️

THE DETAILS:

The guy that plugged our tire near the cemetary told us that it was only temporary so we would need to have the tire replaced. So, first thing Monday morning while I finished packing things up at the Tbilisi AirBnb, Richard took the van in for a new tire, only to be told it wasn't needed. We prayed that this was true.

About an hour into our road trip to Chakvi (near Batumi), we were all laughing at the site of this car (see the picture at the top of this post) heavily weighed down with tires - on top and inside! Not 10 minutes later, the joke was on us because our tire popped. Not the tire that was flat the day before - this was a new one. A nail was the culprit again. (There are a suspicious number of tire repair shops in this country so we are starting to wonder if they lace the roads with nails to stay in business...😜) Maybe the car full of tires was just prepared with the number of tires he knew he'd need to replace before arriving at his destination. Ha!

Richard and Bob changed the popped tire out for the spare and we drove to the nearest village - following our GPS to a tire shop. We passed multiple tire shops on the way to the one we were mapped to, but they didn't look like they were open, so we decided to stay on course - assuming that, if it were mapped, it would be more legit than the ones we were passing. Silly us. We arrived at this:

After 2 more tire shops that were closed (despite their OPEN 24/7 signs). 2 automotive shops that do everything BUT tires, and a tire shop that only rotates and purchases tires, we finally found a shop that would help us. Like the day before, they kindly cut us to the front of the line, did a great plug repair job, and sent us on our way with minimal charge. Our experience everywhere thus far has been that, where Georgians could choose to take advantage of Americans, they have been very generous. Their integrity is admirable.

After our 2.5 hour detour, we were finally on our way again. We stopped only once more - for gas and a water closet (bathroom). In Georgia, you pay for use of the restroom. You learn really quickly that you never leave the house without a few Lari (Georgian dollar). Usually there is an old woman who sits at the water closet to collect your money and restalk supplies. This was high-tech: you swipe your card to unlock the door. High-tech or not, you can't do much to improve the experience of using a squatty-potty (as we call them). Note: this is the women's restroom squatty potty which was significantly cleaner than the men's one. 

The last time we drove to Batumi (in 2021), the main highway was under construction so a couple of hours was added to our trip time as we detoured through many little villages. While I was happy to have a shorter drive this time around, I am actually really glad that we saw the country last time. It is truly beautiful! Not only that, but we would have missed out on seeing that each village is lined with little shops - with every person in the village selling the exact same thing. There is the hammock village - where everyone sells hammocks, the clay pot village, the motor oil village, etc. It is the funniest thing. It leaves you wondering: why? Wouldn't it be advantageous to your ability to sell and to your relationships with your neighbors if you weren't all competing for the same business? I don't understand it. One of the benefits of our unexpected tire detour was that we were reminded of this when we saw the many raisin bread shops. Another thing you can see in the picture below that is different from home: the village homes' pipes run overhead outside. It seems this would require a lot more pipes, but I'd guess it makes identifying and repairing leaks easier. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The [nearly] completed highway is cool. So as not to divide the villages, and to maximize travel efficiency, the road is up on pillars through every valley, and then cuts through every mountains with long tunnels. We wished we'd counted, but it feels like we went through 30 tunnels on our journey.

The final hour of our road trip was a downpour in the dark. And the rain continued all the next day. It was a rather abysmal beginning to our home away from home. But...

We have started playing our own version of the Glad game - where we choose a difficult situation and we rapid fire around the circle the blessings we see in the situation. We have 10 seconds to answer - if we can't think of something quickly enough, we're out. When we played this about our trip to Chakvi, we came up with over 30 tender mercies! We are grateful that it was sunny and daylight when the tire popped, that Richard knew how to change the tire and Bob has now learned that new skill, that the spare and carjack were on the side of the car that didn't require pulling any luggage out onto the highway, that Bob was wearing his brighter blue hoodie - making it easier for oncoming traffic to see them on the side of the road, that our detour allowed us to see a horse taking itself for a walk - to name a few. There is always so much good to see, if we will but look for it. God is regularly reminding us that He is in all of the details.