In the middle of March, we decided to check on some of the literacy classes in the villages. Since these villages are in an area that isn't necessarily safe for Americans to travel to, I sent my African assistant director, Boro, to spend a weekend with them. He sent me updates throughout his time there, pictures and news. He said that the village classes are doing better than the city classes and we spent time pondering why that is, and how to motivate the city classes to keep up with their village counterparts.
On his way home, Boro was driving his motorcycle past another village where we know the pastor but have yet to start a literacy class. As he neared the turnoff, the felt the Lord tell him to stop by and check on that pastor. The burden was so heavy that he immediately turned and stopped by the pastor's house. What he found astounded him; the family had only four days' worth of food left. The pastor had recently had a major surgery and thus has no way of working to earn money to sustain his wife and children. His wife and young children work in the fields to harvest grain, but since this isn't harvest season, they would be out of food once their current bag of grain is gone.
So the next day Boro showed up on my front porch, distraught at what he had seen. He said fiercely that he knew God had told him to stop at that pastor's village, because if he hadn't then no one would have known the trouble he was facing. He asked if there was any way that Love Has Feet could buy food for this family.
Absolutely. So we immediately jumped into action, counting the pastor's children and finding a way for Boro to go back as soon as possible to get grain in their home before they had to go a day with no food.
After the grain delivery, Boro came back saying how grateful the family was, and how they prayed for the donors when they received the grain. And how overwhelmed they were that their new months' supply of food arrived on the exact day that the last of their food ran out.
Sometimes we forget how God's timing is ever-perfect. He provides what we need WHEN WE NEED IT. Is that a little scary sometimes? It certainly is. But he never fails to come through, even if that provision looks different from how we think it should look. And even when we think he's a bit late, we look back afterwards and realize that no, he's always on time. Always.