ARUSHA, Tanzania (BNc) — The vehicle of missionaries George and Joy Jensens was demolished by a bus on Jan. 23.
Around 4 p.m., after a day of teaching at the Andrew Connelly School of Preaching, as George Jensen, his son Jacob, and Todd Gee were nearing the house of fellow missionary, Jimmy Gee, a large bus traveling much too fast plowed into the back of their Land Cruiser, crumpling the entire back section and sending the vehicle flying off the road, where it spun around, flipped and rolled one and a half times down the embankment and came to rest on its side.
After the vehicle stopped, the engine was still revving dangerously and smoke started to fill the interior. George turned off the key, but the engine did not stop. All the doors were jammed, but most of the windows were shattered. All three were able to climb out the back window. At Jacob’s suggestion, they immediately had a prayer of thanks for their safety and being able to climb out alive.
They phoned the Gee home where the Jensen daughters, Julia and Lindsey, were visiting, and they came to the scene of the accident. Julia wrote: “I can’t fully describe the terrible feeling I had as we walked over to the road and saw the bus stopped there, with a big crowd of people looking at the opposite ditch. We crossed the road and looked all around for our vehicle, and when I first saw it, my brain didn’t even register that it was ours. Then I looked closer, and to my horror that flat white something in the bushes at the bottom of the embankment was our Land Cruiser. Pictures simply cannot begin to show how bad it looked. Something of the depth is lost when you try to capture it with a camera. The crushed back end… glass everywhere… the entire driver’s side of the vehicle smashed down… seats tweaked and twisted. But worse than any of that, was wondering about the guys, and if they really were all right. That cold, sick feeling in my stomach as we scrambled down into the ditch through the crowd of people, searching for Dad, Jake and Todd… seeing them, with blood running down the sides of my Dad’s and brother’s heads, not knowing how bad they might be hurt, but hugging them and thanking God that they were alive.”
Jimmy Gee took George, Jacob, Lindsey and Julia Jensen and his son Todd to the hospital and then to the police station to report the accident. After a thorough examination it turned out that other than the gash above George’s right eye, a cut on Jacob’s eye, and a bump on Todd’s head, there were no major injuries.
The Gees loaned them one of their vehicles and the next day they were able to return home to Moshi where they were reunited with Joy and another son, Luke, who were anxiously waiting to see them. Julia wrote in closing, “We are all a bit shaken, but mostly just glad to be back together… thanking God for His goodness, and holding each other a little tighter than usual.”
In the photo you see George and Joy Jensen with their four children: Julia – age 21, Jacob – age 19, Luke – age 18, and Lindsey – age 16.
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