...timing

In the fall of 2011, our Medical Mission Team was heading to the airport, fully loaded with twenty extra suitcases full of medicine, ready for a week of Medical Missions in Ecuador.

However, in transit, we received a distressing call from our missionary. Ecuadorian customs had changed their regulations. All the forms and authorization papers we had from the Ecuadorian Consulate were not enough.  We needed more forms and there just wasn't enough time to process all of them.

Deeply disappointed, we unloaded all the medicines from all of those suitcases and left them behind. We didn't know why this happened, but we knew we could trust God.  We knew He had a plan. We used money from our contingency fund to buy medicines locally in Ecuador and we used medicines left in Ecuador by other mission teams.

Our original plan when we returned was to use all those medicines we left behind for our Honduras Medical Mission Trip in February.  However, about four weeks later, I learned that Global Outreach was organizing a Medical Team for Haiti after the earthquake, so I called and offered our medicines.

Global told me that they had a medical/surgical team leaving on Monday morning from Kentucky and a medical supply aircraft was leaving from Tupelo on Saturday and they would love to have these medications to take with them. So, on Friday night, we repacked all those medicines along with some additional medical supplies and on Saturday, those medicines and medical supplies were flown into Haiti.

If we had taken our medications into Ecuador last September, we would not have had any medications to offer to Haiti. Now, we know the reason that we didn't get to take the drugs into Ecuador. Now, we know God's ultimate plan for those medications. There was also one other clear evidence of God's Timing.  The original plan was for the plane to leave Tupelo on Friday for Haiti. If it had left on Friday as planned, it would have been too late for us to send the medications!

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Always trust God's timing. When God says "no", it's because He already has a better plan. 

When God says "wait", there's a reason. 

Trust Him!

-david langerfeld