The Container
Earlier this year, a container was loaded in Atlanta with 400 boxes of books from Books for Africa, 700 tshirts for VBS and youth camp, 700 bandanas, and 38,000 packs of seed. This container was beginning its long journey to Chitipa, Malawi. It was expected to arrive 1-2 months prior to the Peachtree mission team arriving.
The problem was it had a lot of problems on the journey. For a week or two it sat because of a check not being received, then another week or two because someone dropped a digit from the container's serial number, then the truck broke down in transit, and on and on.
It is now late July, the mission team was on the ground in Malawi, and the container was stuck in customs in Tanzania. The trucker was ready to give up and go home. It was the Friday night before the youth camp started on Monday. Things don't happen quickly in Africa, and they certainly don't happen quickly on a weekend.
The team leaders were making plans to do without the goods. The team prayed and prayer requests were sent back to the US and others began to pray.
After a long 10 hour drive to Chitipa, we drove into town - the local market - crowded with people, goods for sale, sticks and buckets atop many heads and smoking fires, and a container. My husband, Jay, says almost jokingly, "There is our container." As we drove closer, Fidel Kambalame, who works for Peachtree Church in Chitapa, walks from behind the truck and is grinning from ear to ear as he sees us see him and the container simultaneously.
A few hours later, our team prayed prayers of thanksgiving for the container and safe travels as night was approaching and the moon was shining. As we prayed, we heard the sounds of the truck with the container headed towards the school where it was to be unloaded the next day.
As I look back and think about what happened and why, I think God was trying to say, "I just wanted you to know that I AM here, I know that you are here, and I've got all the details covered!" I think we all need to be reminded of that - daily!