Thunder boomed as Faith & Tivvy peered out the windows, waiting to see flashes of lightning. Next came the hail, and the girls watched little pieces of ice ‘racing’ each other down the windowpanes. Then came the message from our landlord in Cheltenham warning us to prepare for a power outage as they often happen during an electrical storm. Jason raced to fill a bucket with water and left it in the shower as the rural supply here is on pumps. I started contemplating what the easiest meal to cook over the fireplace would be – pizza as planned, or more venison stew. Fortunately, or maybe sadly, no power outage occurred, and we simply cooked pizza. However, it still felt like we’d had so many other crises that day and in the past week or so. The journey of preparing for overseas missions is often filled with disappointments, delays, change of plans, and spiritual attacks from unlikely places.
Within a short time, two beautiful rainbows appeared outside the kitchen window, reminding us that storms do not last forever, and our faithful God will pull us through. It was a few more hours before I truly felt I’d come through the latest ‘storm’ and was able to tell myself the same as David the psalmist often told himself, ‘Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him! My rock and my deliverer!’ Looking at that bucket of water in the shower, it felt so familiar, and I remembered the large barrels of water that sit in most home bathrooms in Thailand. Their water is also on pumps and power outages are common, so they need a backup on hand. At that moment, I felt one step and one lesson closer to Thailand.
