Coincidences? and more

When we went to South Africa we were asked to share a bit at the church we were visiting. Steve read the passage from Acts that tells of the Macedonian call and that we were looking for someone to come and help us start Ancient Paths in Mozambique when we were put in contact with their pastor. Later the pastor got up and said that when he got Steve’s first e-mail he wasn’t sure what to do with it. But he prayed and got the distinct impression that this was a “Macedonian call” that he should answer.

Sunday we visited the Tembe’s church outside of Maputo that we talked about in our last newsletter. They have been wanting help with the church as they have been involved in a mixture of Christianity and traditional religion and now want to drop the traditional religion. Steve had prepared a sermon from I John 2 that talks about little children, young men and fathers. He talked about spiritual maturity and that we start as little children and then grow into maturity. Later a letter was read and presented to us that in part said that they were “young newborn children needing the milk of the Word” and that as children they need the strengthening of the Reverend Pastor and Pastora (new titles for us!). The letter was prepared well before we arrived.

Later they set up a table for us and the leaders and served Coke and crackers. One of them looked at me and said, “You could come and share with the women during the week.” He went on to describe almost exactly what I had thought of the first time we visited—doing a small Bible study, praying together, teaching some skills or crafts or maybe teaching some to read, just relating together.

So are all these coincidences or is God working behind the scenes? I choose to believe the latter.

On Friday morning I, Steve, got up early and went out to the local hatchery where we get our chicks. I took our driver and project manager to orient them on loading the truck to carry 3000 plus day old chicks. When we arrived I could tell immediately that they were not ready for us. There were almost no chicks and none were in the proper shipping container that we normally use. After some inquiry, they told us they didn’t have enough chicks because the heat from earlier in the week had damaged the hatch. We could only get 600 of the 3100 we had scheduled to transport and they were going to have to hand sort those 600 while we waited. We thought not!

It had been as hot as we have had it for two days--100 F. Rachel was out doing microenterprise training in Zimpeto both of those days and found that using a hand fan, made her feel hotter. It was adding insult to injury by pushing more hot air around - kind of like standing in front of a furnace!

On the way back to the office we drove by the dump. Since I was driving, I almost didn’t catch it, but there were a bunch of day old chicks that some hatchery had disposed of. They had been dumped on a tarp and people were sorting through them to find the “living among the dead.” They looked like they had been through a mud puddle. Instead of being all yellow and fluffy, they were reddish brown and all matted down. I can only suppose that the people collecting them will either try to sell them or take them home and raise them for food. Who knows, some might even make it to a dinner plate. I am still shaking my head.

Today is the deadline for the submission of a grant proposal for a coconut project to the Gates Foundation. Our colleagues have been working around the clock and Steve has put in lots of extra time as well. There have been many Skype calls to Indiana and Nicaragua but thankfully the end is in sight. Now the praying begins!