Wow! This whole week has been a whirlwind of miracles! I’ll try to write about all the amazing things God has been doing!
Ishmael had the amazing opportunity to go to the farm with his brother this past weekend to get everything set up on the farm. They transported all the supplies for the solar generation system out on the night of the July third, and the farm had independent solar power by noon on the fourth! There are eight solar panels; six power the house, and two power the bore hole (the well pump). The house has electricity anytime, day or night!
Now, this may seem mundane to some people, but the first time I ever experienced power outages as a part of daily life was in Zambia. When I was there, the electricity would be out all day long. Days when the power wasn’t out were considered miracles. Businesses could only be effective if they could buy fuel for diesel generators.
Zimbabwe was a lot better; Harare loses power a few hours per day unless it rains; then it goes for whole days. But the outages were becoming more frequent. While Ishmael was in Harare, his translation work, communication, and all other modern workplace tools were dependent on the fickle whims of an unreliable power system.
As if it wasn’t enough of a miracle that Ishmael can now use electricity day and night, anytime, God also worked a miracle for him to get to the farm! The truck driver Ishmael hired couldn’t make it the during the time Ishmael was available to load up and go to the farm. We prayed as he called all around to find another truck driver, and he found one! A truck twice the size of the unavailable truck was asking the same price! Ishmael loaded up all his belongings, and was even able to fit a new water tank for the farm! The truck had no trouble getting to the farm because they had all the proper road clearances to get through police checkpoints. They got to the farm just about noon on July sixth.
The latest blessing as I write this (July seventh) was the news that Zimbabwe entered lockdown for the Coronavirus pandemic again today. Nobody is allowed to be out on the streets unless they have a letter stating their business from their employer. Certainly, nobody is allowed to move to farms during lockdown. If God hadn’t worked His perfect timing with so many miracles, Ishmael would have been stuck in Harare with no way to get out. None of us knew this was about to happen, but God did. He gave Ishmael safe passage and now everything is at the farm, moved in, at home.
Ishmael was able to start new seed beds yesterday. It’s the beginning of a new chapter, a beautiful chapter that started in miracles and continues by the grace of God.