Safety is of the Lord

We had been waiting over thirty minutes and I was starting to get restless. We were sitting at the carpenter’s waiting for some furniture that I had ordered Jessica for Christmas. The carpenter was finishing it up when we arrived and said it would be ready in about 30 minutes. I considered coming back later, or even on another day because we had so much to do, but decided it would be better to wait since his shop was 30 minutes past Blantyre.

Blantyre days are always long and exhausting. It’s about three and a half hours away, so we have to get up early to get all the supplies we need. With thieves are out more at night, and we try to get home by dark. We left even earlier this day so we could go to the carpenter’s first.

Instead of getting things done early, we were now running late. How I hated to waste time like that! After about an hour and a half, the furniture was finally finished! We paid the carpenter and quickly hurried to our next stop.

On our way we pass through Limbe, the roughest area of Blantyre, known for thieves and crime. Usually we can go through without any problems, except for an occasional beggar at the window. As we began driving through we saw crowds of people rushing out, covering their faces as they ran.

Just as I turned to Pastor Nelson to ask what was going on, a cloud of some sort of gas entered the vehicle. Immediately our eyes and throats began itching and burning. Our eyes were watering, making it hard to see. We began wondering if there had been an explosion or fire. Then Pastor Nelson pointed at Policemen in full riot gear. As our eyes began to clear, we noticed bricks scattered everywhere.

We learned that they had used tear gas to break up a riot that started when government officials tried to collect taxes from local businesses.

We knew that the delay was from the Lord! If we hadn’t had to wait for the carpenter, we would have been in the middle of the riot. We thanked God for His protection.

We finished our business in town without any other issues and began our trip home. In the distance we could see dark clouds, which concerned us a little as we still needed to drive down a winding mountain road.

As we began going down the mountain, we had a little rain, but nothing heavy. But we noticed a lot of gravel and rocks that had been washed across the road, trees down, and even some large boulders that had fallen off the mountain into the road. At the foot of the mountain, even more trees were down, some power lines were leaning over, roofs had been blown off of homes, and water about an ankle deep was still flowing across the road.

Again we could see that the Lord had a purpose for that delay! We thanked the Lord again for protecting us and keeping us from driving down the mountain in the midst of the storm, and we prayed for the rest of our trip.

We still had two hours to travel and two spots where we have to go off road that are frequently flooded. If it rained hard enough, we could be stuck with no way home.

Thankfully as we approached the diversions, we found both dry and were able to easily get home. Once again we thanked the Lord for keeping us safe.

Over and over again we’ve seen, the Lord’s timing is always perfect. If He causes you to wait, just be patient.

We know that Safety is of the Lord, and your prayers for us make a difference. We may not know the full extent of what your prayers protect us from until we get to heaven.

(A few pictures of the kids with some of our ministry helpers. Lydia was missing because she was sick.)