TESTIMONY OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS for the Team as they departed for South Sudan

March 23, 2014 
If you haven’t already heard this, we just had to share this wonderful testimony of God's faithful/timely provision, after asking the Lord to order the packing & check in process at the airport, for those going to South Sudan, which can be stressful & expensive!!

With the help of some friends, we spent the afternoon Thurs. packing, organizing donated items, rolling clothes, & determining what light/heavy items should be packed in which of 3 duffle bags to get them all to weigh 50 lbs. Yay! Done!

THEN the next day (2 days before departure) another package arrived with donations from Missouri containing toiletries, school supplies & the cutest handmade prairie skirts with matching tops & we just HAD TO find a way to get these into Jon's bags.

THEN we got a call from a sport shoe store saying they had 6 pair of soccer cleats to donate! When Jon came back home with them, he said we just HAD TO take these to his brothers in South Sudan! We made a decision right then that we would trust God and take a 4th bag, praying that they would either discount or wave the fee all together, but if not we would cover the $200 extra bag fee.

THEN we got a call from a kind donor who apologized over and over for being late and wondered if we could still take donations of clothes etc. So I said, that if she had called a few hours ago, I would have said, sorry we couldn't, but she called at the perfect time, since we had just decided to take an extra bag and God had provided that very morning so that we had the funds to cover it. Now all we needed was a bag. She said that she actually had a bag and wanted to give $ toward the extra bag fee. When she arrived she already had 30 lbs. of donations (clothing, first aid, school & sewing supplies) in A HUGE GREEN DUFFLE BAG and gave us $60 toward the extra cost. I was overwhelmed and in awe of God's perfect timing and abundant provision. Her bag was so easy to pack and we still had room after it reached 50 lbs. which is significant!!

AT THE AIRPORT, the team of 10 could take 30 bags for FREE (3 per person) but there were 32 total, so it was decided that rather than pay $200 each for 2 extra bags we would break up 2 boxes of transmitter radios and stick them in as many containers and bags as we could and not go over weight. This BIG GREEN DUFFLE BAG had plenty of room and was the only one that ended up being overweight and the overweight charge? It was $60, just what that kind donor felt led to give! God is real, He is with us, and He is SO good!

Oh, and I totally forgot to add that the lady at the counter tagged 31 bags!! Whether we counted wrong or she tagged a bag twice we will never know, but she insisted the computer said we had 31 bags and asked how we would pay the $200 for the extra bag. William hesitated and was so puzzled and kept going over the numbers of bags that each party had & suddenly a women showed up and asked what the problem was & when the clerk explained, she said, "No problem, forget about it, let them go, it's fine." She had remembered the Levi's from their trip in 2009 and knew what they were doing was helping others on the mission field and authorized the mysterious 31st bag would not be charged!!!