Our Plans, God's Plans.

Well, most days we think that we have things 'under control.'  And interesting idea and a bit arrogant to be quite truthful.  I was reminded of that today.  After traveling 1,500 km from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, our container of personal goods arrived at our house.  This was the container of our things that we packed with the help of our MAF friends in Lesotho last January.  

We were really excited to see the truck arrive and for it to make its way down our rather steep drive to the side of the house.  Our plans were all in place.  Unbeknownst to us, the container got loaded on the truck with the doors facing forward against the front wall of the truck.  Apparently this is done to protect the contents from thieves that will jump on the back of the truck when it is going slowly up a hill and then proceed to cut the locks and open the doors and steal things while the truck is moving!

We were completely surprised to see it loaded that way, as we have no way to turn it around at our house – it weighs 9 tons!  The driver and his helper were apologetic but really they just delivered it.  After giving thanks to God for their safe journey (4 days) and the safe arrival of the container, I told them that even though we were surprised and disappointed, that God knew all along that this was going to occur.  That if we would just continue to trust Him, he would show himself to be faithful as always. At least that has been our experience in our walk with God.  He is faithful, and his plans are always best.

Well, I had an idea to go to the Port Authority as the Tanzania rail ends here and they do some shipping from here.  They have a 50 ton stationary crane that they use to off load rail cars.  They don't work today but tomorrow morning we will go there with the truck/container and pay to have them pick up the container, turn it around, and put it back on the truck.  Then back to the house to begin the unloading.  Then the work really begins.

I would ask you to pray that the crane works, that we have favor with the staff there as we have to get permission for them to lift the container, that they won't over charge us, and that no one gets hurt in the process.  Also pray that no one gets hurt unloading the container.  It has a lot of heavy stuff, and it has to be lifted down from the back of the truck.  There are no ramps and no lifts here.  I plan to hire 6 guys to help us.

All that to say, I am thankful that God is in control and I am not…

Be blessed,

Larry