God's Surprises

I had a great day yesterday despite the fact that our washing machine overflowed twice.  The ironic thing is that I was trying to wash the towels that I had used to dry up the first wash-tastrophe.

But, like I said I had a great day, because I finally got the literacy materials I needed to take this literacy program to the next level.  We have been using the primers written by the local Bible translation and literacy organization, ANTBA.  But we bought all that they had, and it was only 100,  which we quickly used up in our pilot program that I started a couple of months ago.  So I ordered 1,000 of them and 1,000 of the reading supplements that go with them.  The cool thing about the reading supplements is that each reading is an actual translation of a scripture in Dagara, which means that the materials that were already together apply directly to our goal of getting churches able to read their Bibles.

It was kind of crazy how it happened.  I had been calling Stanislas, who works with ANTBA and lives in the capital city, Ouagadougou.  I had been trying to get an update on the status of these books for over a month now.  Anyway, on Wednesday, he told me that they had finished printing them.  I was amazed.  Then I asked him if he could try to send them on the bus.  He said he would try.  So, yesterday, he went to the bus station in the capital and checked in 21 boxes of books on the bus.  While I was making pizza, that evening, he called and said, you need to go to the bus station NOW! So I rushed down there only to find that they had no idea about ANY boxes for me (let alone 21) and the bus had already gone on to the next station.  I tried to call Stanislas and there was no answer.  I thought, "Great, now the books are halfway on their way to Gaoua and it's raining so they'll probably get dropped off at the station there and get water damage or something,"  but about an hour later Stanislas called me and told me that he had just talked to someone on the bus and the bus hadn't got there yet.  (Then I remembered, duh, that there are two night buses that come to Dano each day).  He also thought, however, that, just to make sure, I ought to just go down and park at the bus station.  So I headed down there leaving my pizza to get cold.  It was like divine timing.  I got there just as the bus pulled up and sure enough after a little bit of a wait at the 'baggage claim' (translation pushing and shoving mass of bodies frantically pulling stuff out of the bus before it pulls out of the station), they finally found my boxes underneath some bicycles and other luggage they had stuffed into the undercarriage of the bus.

You should have been there, although it probably would have felt awkward with my hugging you and dancing around like a whirling dervish.  I was so excited to finally have all these materials in hand.  I have been praying and hoping for this moment for months.  I was really grateful for that feeling I got of joy in the midst of breaking washing machines and interrupted pizza nights.  I really sensed God's hand in the process.  My getting there at that time meant that I was able to get all the boxes into storage just moments before the rain really picked up again.

Have you ever had a day that should have been awful where God did something unexpected that turned it all around?  Tell me about it.  I hope this story did your heart some good and I know it would do my heart some good to hear more stories like it from you.  If you didn't comment on my last blog post, you missed an interesting tangential conversation between my Dad and I about salt and light.  I wonder where God would lead our conversation today.  What has he done to surprise you?  Even if it was the other way around, like you thought your day was going to be a great day and God threw you a curve ball.  How have you sensed God's presence this week, month, year?