Sunday, August 5, 2007

Clamshell Containers and God

For my job at Somebody Cares America, I've been helping complete a disaster prepardness and response training manual for churches and other christian organizations. The manual has been developed from the experience and expertise of our local and national relief parterns. Last summer, many of them met in D.C with Somebody Cares at a "think-tank," on how the church can co-labor more effectively to be our government's greatest asset when disaster strikes. Many of those at the meeting were some of the first responders in New Orleans and other places where Katrina and Rita did their thing. The stories I was able to read are amazing (I'm talking jaw-dropping)...God did so many cool things through His Church. The following is a very cool testimony from a pastor in one of the areas where Rita did lots of damage...this is just a glimpse of the amazing provisions of God...Enjoy!

"It [Hurricane relief] was just one extended adventure for me, just a great spiritual adventure. I'll give you one testimony: The Southern Baptist Convention guys showed up and they had five city block of [cooking equipment] organized and put together. The head cook came over and said 'we don't' have anything to serve [the people] in.' They were handing out food in pieces of aluminum foil, and he said, 'what are we going to do?' I said 'all I know how to do is pray,' so I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, 'Lord, Aubrey and I know that you know where all the clamshell containers in the world are, and you know what we need, and I ask you to give us what we need.' I took my hand off his shoulder, and the phone rang, and it was a volunteer from Pennsylvania or somewhere in Doug's (Somebody Cares) office. He said 'I'm so and so from Pennsylvania. I'm here just volunteering and I just got the call that somebody has some clamshells they'd like to give away. Would you like some?' And I said, 'Yes! I'll take all you can give me!" I called one of my denominational leaders (Jerry) who was going to drive that way in his car [so he could] pick them up. And he said, 'find out how many they have.' And I found out and called him back and said, 'well, you car won't do. They have six pallet loads of clamshells.' I said, 'You know, Jerry, I guess God is going to have to provide a 26-foot enclosed trailer with a one-tone Dooley truck if we're going to get those clamshell….My phone rang; It was my wife who was at our distribution center and said, 'Charles, a guy just drove in from West Texas with a 26-foot horse trailer with a one-tone truck. What do you want him to do with it?' That [miraculous provisions, etc] happened every day, over and over."


2 comments:

Jess said...

Thanks for sharing Tania! I love getting to hear these stories. There is so much negative in the daily news that we get everyday and it's good to hear about the great and mighty ways that God is providing for His people throughout all of that. And it never gets brought to light in the media.

I thank God for the bold example you set for all of us!

The Maddox Family said...

that's a really cool story on several levels. The people serving the victims wanted to serve them as though they would want to be served. They didn't just want to give them food, they wanted to give them food, a way to transport it and eat it out of. That's pretty cool. what God did was pretty cool too. On another note I hope that they were the same containers like in your pic becuase the ones with no dividers are my krypotnite...I can never decide which way is up.