This group of words looks like something from a superhero comic book, but I’m trying to convey what we heard, not one at a time with commas in between, but more like ZAPCRASHPOW all at once, really loud and bright, as lightning hit and thunder sounded simultaneously yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Roy and I were on our porch, videoing the hail, yes, hail, equaling little rain pebbles of ice from above, right here in tropical Africa. Timothy had run out onto his lawn from his porch, about 100 yards from us, to pick up a hailstone or two.
As he ran back to his house, the lightning struck, somewhere VERY close by. It threw him onto his hands and knees and then flat out on his face on his porch. I saw him go down, thinking that he had run for cover and tripped. He got right back up and smiled and waved to me through the rain, so I thought everything was okay. Turns out that he felt a tingly electrical charge and that he doesn’t remember anything about the fall. We are so very thankful that he just suffered a small shock through the wet grass and ground and it was not more serious! We found out, when we went back in the house, that our lights weren’t working and the serious side of the lightning strike was about to be revealed.
The generator and bank of batteries with invertor, in July
The lightning hit our generator room, literally blowing apart our batteries and some relays, circuit breakers and control panels.
Today, the batteries, with acid and pieces of their casing all over the floor
With some expert help from our mechanic/jack of all trades, Jackson, and Gamboula mission’s garage whiz kid Leonard, we discovered, thankfully, that our main generator still works and the water pump is also functioning. Just another chapter to add to our electrical/technical woes at the farm, BUT we’re not down yet!!! We are thankful to have 12 volt batteries with lights and an invertor to run computers in each of our houses when the generator is not running. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, for safety and for good attitudes even when things just seem to go wrong, one after another!
