Learning to Forgive...the hard way!

As everyone is by now aware, Tony purchased a lovely tractor which he’s certainly had fun with but has also put to good use since we’ve been here.

He found the dealers details online when I was away in December of last year in Tanzania with my father.  He had lots of contact with the owner of the business, a Mr. Roger Fagan (reminiscent of the artful dodger - should he have known better?!) and built up quite a rapport.  When a tractor became available that was suitable, Roger got in touch and offered lots of accessories (I’ve learnt that the term “accessories” has a completely different connotation to a man!).  Tony, being constrained by what we actually need to do over here as much as by budget, decided on the most useful accessories and we made payment in full in April of this year on the understanding that the tractor and all the accessories would be waiting for us in France.

Before we arrived in France, the owner of the dealership contacted us to ask if we had lots of space and if so, could he use our courtyard to store some other equipment for a few weeks and of course we agreed.  We arrived in France in mid May, any other equipment that may have been stored ‘chez nous’ was gone and our lovely tractor was waiting for us with all but 1 of the accessories - the missing accessory was the backhoe - one of the most useful pieces of equipment as well as one of the most expensive.

Three months after making payment, we’ve spoken to the man on numerous occasions and been made numerous promises and been told numerous stories - even twice that out of the “goodness of his contrite heart” he’s put the money back into our account on the understanding we’ll give him a cheque when he does make good on a delivery..........and there’s no money in the account and now no answer on the phone.

So.....I’ve actually been praying blessings upon the man - I’ve been praying that he’ll be blessed with a conscience and some integrity and today after calling almost nonstop with no answer, we finally called from a seldom used UK cell phone and, at 8pm we received a call from him - funnily enough he didn’t realise it was us he was calling despite it being the same number we’ve called him from previously and he said he was working his way through 32 missed calls and then went on to explain that he’s paid the money in to our account at noon today (although still no sign when I check online) and if his employee can’t deliver the backhoe in the next couple of days he’ll come himself.

On the face of it it seems fairly positive but we have heard a number of different stories and had promises of a number of different delivery days so we’ll just have to keep praying and hoping and I guess by the end of the week if there’s still no sign we may have to consider something a little more drastic like a trip to the UK!

We will report back once we’re in possession of the backhoe, the money, or perhaps a ticket to the UK.  In the meantime, we'll keep thinking positive thoughts and remember to be thankful for all that we do have!