Part 2 | Stuck in the Woods of Eastern Ukraine on Cold Winter’s Night

Yesterday I shared with you how I found myself stuck in the middle of a forest in Eastern Ukraine last weekend. If you didn’t read that post yet, then you need to stop right now and read it here.

After breaking three tire wrenches while trying to remove the flat it was looking like the chances of my getting out of the forest that night were shrinking.

Dennis and I stopped for a moment and silently stared at the bent rim, in return it silently mocked us, it was winning and it wasn’t about to give up!

Thankfully my bent rim didn’t know about my secret weapon.

“Dear God, you know our situation, we can’t get this tire off and we’re stuck, please help us!”

My secret weapon was prayer, one of those simple, no-nonsense, cut to the point because we really need help, prayers. Later I found out that I wasn’t the only one praying for our trip that day. Yes, this is why we appreciate the many of you who pray for us regularly!

We opened our eyes after we prayed and stood there a bit longer.

Suddenly a thought came into my mind. Maybe, just maybe a hammer could fix this situation.

I know what you’re thinking!

“A hammer?! You’re not going to get that wheel off with a hammer!”

If that’s what you thought then you haven’t lived in Ukraine. There’s a saying here that goes like this:

“If you can’t fix it, then get a bigger hammer.”

I pulled out my Ukrainian hammer and started swinging. After a dozen or so solid hits to the bent part of the rim I stopped to take a look. It was hard to say but it looked like I had made some progress.

Once again I began to pound on the rim, this time with new-found energy. I kept my arm swinging until it grew so tired that I was no longer accurate.

I handed the hammer over to Dennis and he gave it a go for a while. We were definitely making progress now! Once Dennis had run out of strength he stood up. The rim looked amazingly round compared to how it looked just a few minutes earlier!

“Let’s put some air into it and see what happens.”

I told Dennis as I dug out the pump in a hurry to see if our hammering had been a success.

The tire slowly regained its form and the once leaning van seemed to stand up, straight and tall. The tire was holding air!

I slid behind the wheel, put the van in gear and gingerly moved it forward while Dennis watched the wheel to see if the hammered out rim would hold.

It held!

After an hour or so of struggle we had won or maybe I should say God had won. To us it seem pretty miraculous that we had just fixed a flat tire with nothing more than a hammer!

We safely made it through the remaining 12 miles of our journey and when we got there we thanked God, ate a big Ukrainian dinner and prepared ourselves for Sunday’s graduation.

Question: Have you ever been stuck? How did you get out of the situation?