We had the pleasure of hosting a large (for our apartment) group of people tonight. Rachel put on a great three course meal. Brian McIntyre (minus his wife Debbie and kids) & Coleen Scigliano are in town for their exit interviews today and tomorrow respectively. This is the point in the process where the mission checks up to be sure that the departing missionary has all their paperwork, support, etc. together before heading to the field. It is supposed to occur 1 month before planned departure. Anyway, We had them as well as a Ghanian pastor, the President of the board (Don Clark) and his wife over. We enjoyed serving them. All had been to Ghana except us so we heard a lot of new things about Ghana and what these new missionaries expect to see when they arrive. They talked about the items they missed in the container that is already packed and on its way. Things like dishes and special pillows won't be seen for almost a month, maybe more.
Be in prayer for the container which holds all the items that they need to setup their home when they arrive. News came from the shipping company today that it is taking longer to process the container than they thought. In fact, if it doesn't get on the ship leaving in three days, they may have a delay of a full month. Having already made their plans and bought their tickets, they are understandably concerned that they may arrive in Ghana and have no household goods.
Don Clark, President of the FIM's board as well as CMTS's, shared a story. He told about a container that was loaded up by CMTS (like the Ghanian group's) and just as they were taking it away, the container flipped on its side. Apparently, it took a long time for it to be righted and caused it to miss its boat. A month later, just as it would have been arriving in the country, riots broke out and it is highly likely that the container would have been raided and emptied of all items of worth. God works in mysterious ways. Who knows what may be in store for this container going to Ghana, but pray for theses people as they make the transition into the country of Ghana, joining the group they will be working with there.
