Shelton Christian has had a plan to go to Haiti again this year. This has not been the easiest of years. We have trouble with dates, tickets, and people. Just when it all seemed to come together things changed.
We have been on an adventure for several weeks in reference to our Haiti medical order. Oklahoma's pharmacy board has been changing the rules for our supplier (that sound kind of bad, but we will go with it). They used to let a nurse sign for the medicine and then they would ship it to the church office. Easy. Last year the rule changed and we needed a P.A., That took a couple of days but we found one and the shipment came to the church as before. This year two new rules changes. First, we needed an M.D. or D.O. to sign for the meds. That took a bit, but we found one. We found our first snag when we learned that a license with the address of the doctor's clinic was also required. That took a lot of work as our doctor didn't really have hard copies of what we needed to send. We were working on a work around when the second rule came into effect, the meds could not be shipped to the church office, but had to go to the doctor's office. That is where we ran into a real problem. Since our doctor's office is owned by the hospital, there were hospital rules to deal with and one was not drugs could be delivered to the clinic address. We were in trouble. As it turned out the hospital pharmacy (which we hoped to ship to wouldn't allow delivery.) We were dead in the water suddenly.
Fortunately, we had started working on alternate plans even as we worked on getting our local option in place. Plan B was to contact my step-brother, Charles, in Kennewick and see if he would and could sign off on our drug order and be a shipping place. While that plan was being worked on, Plan C was also being stirred around. That one involved a road trip to Oklahoma. Not very appealing to say the least. Then we got to Plan C-2. That one involved a team member using mileage for an airplane ticket, quick flight to OK and home the next day with meds in checked luggage. Not ideal, but doable. Through all this prayers were offered up. We enlisted the prayer warriors and team members in the quest for a solution. There were several days of unknowns. Finally, Plan B came through and next week we/I go to Kennewick and pick up meds and take Charles and his wife to dinner.
I have no doubt that God had this all worked out. The connection with Charles was made last year when JoAnne, his wife, supplied dresses for our Haiti trip. They then know about our work and had an interest in it. I have flooded their inbox with a dozen or more messaged the last three days, but all is well.
God had a plan. But part of that plan required us to do our part. We were faithful in prayer. We believed God would work it out. Maybe I didn't need to work on Plan C and trusted that Plan B would work, but one never knows the future. We were prepared. We have made ourselves available for God to use in Haiti. He knew what we needed. He is faithful. Yet, there is our side.
Debbie reminded me of Nehemiah. He was a man of God. He prayed faithfully for Jerusalem and their lack of a wall. He was God's man for the job. Nehemiah had to more to do than pray about it. He had to go, plan, prepare, lead, and troubleshoot the construction of that wall.
I often think about the situations we face in our lives. Sometimes things just sail on, blissfully. At other times, we face trials and challenges. At times like this we are on our knees in prayer. And sometimes, maybe more than we know, we are not the ones praying, we are the answers to someone else's prayers.
And through it all, God looks down, smiles and says, "I love it when a plan comes together." Thank you, Father!
