A Simple Lesson

"The fire is out",  he said as I picked up the phone "and no one was hurt".   This is a standing joke between us so I didn't respond.      "I mean it," he said more emphatically,  "we almost had a fire here at the mission."

Apparently, Mr.Wonderful felt a prompting by the Holy Spirit to go upstairs one morning to look around and discovered the sun was shining directly on one of the lenses on an overhead projector. The angle of the lens and the position of the sun caused the light to be focused to a fine hot point which made the plastic case start smoking.      Mr. Wonderful quickly moved the overhead projector before it could catch on fire.           

How comforting to know that God cares about even the smallest details in our lives.  I am reminded that there are "flash points" in my life too.   Normally I am able to handle the small irritations of life without any difficulty. However, there are some rare occasions when the angle of the problem and position of my attitude shifts the focus away from God and directly to me.   I allow "my feelings" to intensify and I begin to fuss and fume.   If left unchecked, my smoldering emotions can catch fire ignig and destroy the harmony around me.

January was a "flashpoint" for us.       We were able to have the first prayer day of the year and it helped us focus on the first container of the year.             We began a container of summer clothing, blankets, and sheets for victims of a typhoon in Bangladesh.   We were only able to load three-fourths of the container before running out of boxes.

It was embarrassing to know that we did not have enough boxes to finish the job. We had to let our volunteers leave knowing that we needed to come up with about 200 more boxes. We take "pride" at the mission (yes, I know that pride is a sin) that we don't send air or junk and yet here we are with lots of unfilled space.

We were fortunate to have a group of Pioneer Girls staying at the mission over the weekend. The girls enjoyed helping load the container and filled over 70 boxes of summer clothing before leaving Sunday morning.        We were also able to secure another 30 boxes from one of our supporting churches on Monday.

We are used to being able to load a clothing container in about 3 hours and have it on it's way to the port. The longer we have a container tied up the more it costs, so time has always been a key element in loading.   This container is the exception.  (   We discovered that the port could not receive it before  February 4th giving us an additional week to fill it without additional cost.)      So what we perceived to be a disaster turned out to be a detail that God had already made provision for.   This past week I have been busy boxing up more clothes to complete the shipment.

Mr. Wonderful and I have been reading the Ransomed Heart by John Eldredge during our morning devotions. He states that " Everything you love is what makes life worth living." We are so blessed to have faithful friends like you to partner with us and allow us to pursue our first love. We are honored to represent you as you enable us to reach out to people around the world providing simple items such as clothing and bedding in Jesus' name.