Killing A Car

Have you ever killed a car? I know that sounds kinda weird, but have you? Because  that’s exactly what we’re doing to ours. Here, let me start from the beginning...

When we moved to Brazil we left behind our 2 vehicles in the US. And we not only left behind 2 vehicles, we left behind 2 vehicles that were paid off! One of our vehicles was a Dodge Durango and the other was a Ford F-150. We couldn’t ship either one of the them here because they would’ve taxed us some crazy amount (I think it’s actually 150% of what the vehicle is worth) to bring it into the country. So, we sold my truck before we left and used that money to help move the family here and a friend of ours (thanks Mark Pusen!) sold MJ’s Durango for us (it sold a few months after we were already in Brazil). When it sold, we took the money that we got from the Durango and purchased a vehicle here in Brazil. We ended up buying a 98’ Volkswagen Parati. It’s a little 4 door hatchback that seats 5 (legally). Now, you might be saying, “but Jim, you have 9 people in your family in Brazil.” And I’d say, “yes... you are correct my friend.” Let’s just say that either everyone doesn’t get to go all at once or we look like the clown car at the circus when we roll up somewhere (you know, it’s where all the clowns keep piling out of this small car and you wonder how they all fit in it). But we’re thankful for our car nonetheless. Not having to walk or be stranded in the mountains/jungles of Brazil is something that you can’t even put a price tag on. But when Volkswagen rolled this car off the assembly line they never imagined the abuse that it was going to take, I’m sure of it. 

Let me try to explain where we live. We live about 5k up on the top of a mountain (it’s the tallest mt. in our state at 5,638 ft and it’s the 15th highest mt. in Brazil) way out in the middle of the jungle. It’s about 40 minutes from Curitiba and 7 hrs from Sau Paulo. There’s only 2 ways to get to the Camp (where our house is). You can either take the dirt road that starts in Terra Boa and go up the right side of the mountain or you can drive off the side of the highway near this big bridge (before you get to the reservoir) and go up the left side of the mountain. Either way, it’s like driving on the surface of the moon. There’s sooooo many potholes and dips and turns and rocks protruding out of the middle of the road. It’s crazy. And to drive the mountain roads with our car is even crazier. I would’ve loved to have my F-150 or MJ’s 4x4 Durango with the Hemi for these roads, but noooooo. We have a 4 cylinder front wheel drive Volkswagen instead... awesome. And for the last 9 months, every time we’ve gone up or down our mountain road, we’ve knocked a little of the life right out of our little car with each trip. We’ve rattled off door handles, fuel filters, headlights, the door to our gas tank, cracked the windshield, every handle or knob on the car is either loose or has fallen off. Even the covers where speakers are suppose to go (which we don’t have because there’s no radio) have shaken off of the doors. I mean, there’s only so much violent shaking a car like this can take before it literally disintegrates right before your very eyes. We’ve used it to haul horse feed, construction supplies, PVC pipe, lumber, rebar and bags of cement to the camp too. Then add the fact that we have to haul sound/video equipment to all the meetings along with 8-9 people at a time... it’s straight out of the manual on “How to Kill Your Car.” But we’re not walking and it makes things interesting and it’s gonna give us stories to tell for years to come. So stay tuned as our car dies a slow painful death.

The Executioner,

Jim



PS -  Well, it happened. I actually wrote the blog above a week or so ago. And before I could actually post it, our car died. 
It happened yesterday as we were on our way to the airport to pick-up some people at the airport (who were coming from the US for long-term missions work with us). About 15 minutes after we left the house the car lost power, backfired, and then let out the biggest plume of black smoke you've ever seen. It was amazing: )
But the problem is, now we're stranded. Great. Living in the jungles is difficult enough, much less without transportation. So, please pray that we can get it repaired quickly and that we'll be rollin' up and down the mountain again soon.