Republic of Georgia
Convoy of Hope
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Four respirators and a truck load of medical supplies, are now in Springfield, Mo. Monday evening, Donna and I set out in a 24' Ryder truck to deliver the medical bounty from Mike Steelman & Keith Morvant at Christus St. Elizabeth and Harry Azlin (the respirator salesman that gave us the respirators). On board also, was 2 each new washing machines, dryers, and 50 gallon water heaters for the Bodbe orphanage provided by Treasures. Over the last month or two, Nellie and Allen Mitchell made several trips to our little warehouse, with their pick-up loaded with the supplies. The warehouse team included Donna, Stephanie, Jennie and her friend Pam, Phyllis, Ed and Sarah, Perry and Joan, Wesley and Yvonne, and Nancy. They separated, sorted, counted, boxed, inventoried, stacked and generally wore themselves out. Sooooo many little pieces, everything touched, examined, and moved on to its proper place. At one point, as we were looking at our mountain of "stuff", Ed remarked, "It looks like we may not be able to overcome our insurmountable prosperity". We laughed, but I wasn't so sure he wasn't right. The piles kept getting higher every time we handled them. The good folks at Convoy of Hope told us we had to deliver the goods on pallets, in a dock-high truck. OK, we can do that. The team sorted the boxes into pallet size loads, and marked them accordingly. The only thing was, we didn't have a forklift to load with. No problem, we will put the empty pallets in the truck and load them there. Boy! That was fun, and HOT! Monday morning Ed, Perry, and I got out there loading, while poor Stephanie and Donna had to sit in the a/c and watch through the window, as they kept up with the inventory lists. The respirators needed manuals & spare parts. The Lord provided these through Kent Hartell the Head of electronic maintenance at MASH & Sonny Smith a volunteer at Christus St. Elizabeth. Then we needed a truck to transport everything to Convoy of Hope in Missouri. The Lord used Nancy & Starr to coordinate the task at hand. Kell Jones provided a 24" truck... and before we knew it we were on our way. Our God is so faithful! All of the needs were provided! Note: If you print out a MapQuest route to a chosen destination, believe them. Donna and I set out Monday at about 6:30 pm. Driving in Texas is good. Driving in Arkansas is akin to driving in the Republic of Georgia, not as many wacko drivers, but roads to rival the road to Bodbe. Even their interstate highways were a far second to our state highways. We spent the night in Hope, Ark. Tuesday, as we progressed, we looked at the map and decided we could save over 100 miles, and a lot of time, if "we just turn here and follow that road straight up to Hot Springs. No need to go to Little Rock and double back." Wrong! We found out too late that little short red line was straight uphill, low gear, 20 mph. It only added, oh maybe, hmm, 4 hours. What a short-cut! Convoy told us we would have to unload on Wednesday morning. They were very glad to see us, and receive our boxes for Greg. Debbie was surprised to see we had included an inventory list for each pallet, she was ecstatic to find out we had a second copy of everything for her. Apparently, some of what they receive isn't exactly organized. We were given a tour of their facility, and told a bit about their story. I'll tell more about that later. It was exciting to find that their vision is almost identical to Treasure's. Kenton Moody, over their international section, voiced an interest in the possibility of our two groups partnering in several endeavors. We will see where the Lord leads. We are trusting the Lord for a speedy shipment to Georgia, so these items will be ready for us when we get there. Keep praying, keep hoping, keep watching. Work while it is day, for the night comes...
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