For a week now I have been spending hours on the internet and making dozens of calls to locate a seaworthy shipping container. I had what I thought was a really reasonable plan- to buy a container when my house sold, store all my belongings in the container, pack them for shipping as I had time within the container, and add donations after the belongings were finalized. This way I did not have to pay for a storage facility until the move to Africa.
Well it turns out that my logic is not logical for the shipping industry. No one wanted to sell me a container unless I was ready to ship it. Many had containers but could not certify them seaworthy. And only 1 party was even willing to give me a referral or point me in the right direction. I was very discouraged and wanted to give up…
But God prompted me to go to the prayer chain at church. While writing the prayer request, I felt God’s Spirit covering me and at the same time felt compelled to write Sylvain in Africa and have him ask the churches in the District to pray about the container. My impression was that this was the beginning of our ministry together, that God wanted people on both sides of the ocean to pray over this matter, to be brought into unity/community for a common purpose.
Within 24 hours of the prayer request I located someone who had a seaworthy container, but he would not sell it to me until he was convinced that I had a way of loading the filled container back onto a truck. This task, he explained, was done by a very specialized $200,000 piece of equipment with only a few locations in the U.S.The equipment is called a swing lift or a side-lifter.
I continued searching and calling, and within 24 hours after the location of the container, I located someone in KY who had the piece of equipment that was needed and was a price 40% below what I was told to expect. The man is ready to be in Dayton on the day of the move.
This is the power of prayer, to remind us how ineffective we are when we try to go it alone. When we share the burden and take it to the Lord, what mighty things He can accomplish! May His name be praised forever and ever.