{"id":195,"date":"2012-07-30T21:56:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T01:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/?p=195"},"modified":"2012-08-01T14:24:40","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T18:24:40","slug":"fish-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/2012\/07\/30\/fish-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish in the Desert (Paragauy 1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Trip to visit relatives 10 hours away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The road was in the talcum powder stage when the Manjui people said, \u201cWe want to go to visit our people. First you said, \u201cWait for rain.\u201d Then you said, \u201cWait for the road to dry.\u201d Now you say, “The bulldozer broke the crust on the road surface & wait for a rain to harden it. Talk straight to us.\u201d\u00a0 Since they were getting very impatience, against my better judgment I told them we would take off early Friday morning for the 10 hour tractor trailer trip to visit their relatives living just outside of town.<\/p>\n

The main road was worse than I thought as one of the big ranches was selling cattle. Six heavy loaded semi cattle trucks passed by & all the traffic turned the road into foot deep ruts filled with fine dust. When you walked the powder billowed up, your feet & ankles disappeared under the powder in the ruts.<\/p>\n

But we arrived just fine leaving the Manjui people for the weekend to enjoy visiting with their relatives telling them we would be back Sunday morning to pick them up.\u00a0 Everyone was happy! We drove on into town looking forward to visiting with friends & shopping.<\/p>\n

Saturday night we could see lightening in the distance. It didn’t rain in town but we could tell it was raining in the direction of home. We prayed, “Please don\u2019t let it rain too much on the road\u201d.\u00a0 Don said, \u201d Julie, You better stay & fly out by plane Monday as I think the road is going to be muddy\u201d (Just think of water and talcum powder mixed in foot deep ruts)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When I arrived Sunday morning I found the people packed and ready to go. All 76 Manjuis clambered into the trailer, adults, kids, a few dogs & bags. \u00a0By noon we were on our way.\u00a0 It was a trailer load with standing room only but everyone was happy having had a good time visiting with relatives.<\/p>\n

The trip started out well as we turned off the paved highway onto the dirt road but soon I began to see signs of rain. The road became wetter & deep ruts full of water for longer stretches. \u00a0I was thinking soon we would get passed where it rained & the road will be dry again.\u00a0 But the road became worse & I wondered if we should turn around. But as darkness settled in I saw headlights in the distance & I was encouraged that traffic was moving & soon we would be through the worse & on a dry road again.\u00a0 The road conditioned worsened, we fell into a pattern, the tractor would bog down, all the Manjui people would climb out, unhook the trailer, the tractor drive through, run the chain back, hook up the trailer, winch the trailer through, then hook up the trailer. Then all the Manjui people would<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Which rut should I try?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

climb back in & move on.<\/p>\n

About 10 PM a man came walking up through the mud from the head lights in the distance. \u00a0They ask for help as they had a man with appendicitis in the truck. I left the trailer & went to pull them through. It was slow grueling work as the tractor was bogging down. I would rock the tractor back & forth to make a track & then pull one truck through. Then go back for the 2nd truck & pulled it through.\u00a0 I pulled the trucks passed the trailer about 3 miles on to where the trucks could make it on their own.\u00a0 By this time it was about 1 AM. The road was in even worse condition now and I was worn out from fighting the mud for hours.<\/p>\n

As I drove back over the road one last time that was now just one long rut full of water I was discouraged.\u00a0 I was thinking, \u201cLord, I\u2019m so thankful I was here to help save the man’s life by pulling them through. BUT now what? I have 76 people with me, I can\u2019t go forward, & I can\u2019t go back. It\u2019s 1 AM in the morning.\u00a0 What am I going to do? What are the people going to eat? How long are we going to be stuck on the road?\u201d<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t anything to do but settled in for the night. The people found a dry spot along the side of the road & others stayed in the trailer to sleep. I was r<\/p>\n

estless & up again about 4 AM. I walked down the road as it became light, all I could see was water running like a river across the road, as I walked farther the water came over my knees.<\/p>\n

\"Chaco<\/a>
Road became a river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I was standing in the water I was asking the Lord, \u201cWhat am I going to do? Why are you allowing this?\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t like this kind of situation.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like this kind of pressure. What do you want to teach me? What am I going to feed all the Manjui people?\u201d I felt like Moses in the desert when he was guiding the children of Israel to the land of Canaan.<\/p>\n

Well there I was out in the middle of the river asking the Lord what I should do.\u00a0 It was then the Lord gave me a sense of peace.\u00a0 He did not speak audibly but He was saying to me,\u201d Don, look for me in situations like this.\u00a0 Look at all the water you have to drink.\u00a0 Also look around your legs. What do you see?\u201d\u00a0 I looked & there were little fish swimming everywhere.\u00a0 It was like God was saying, \u201cRelax, I have provided everything you need.\u201d\u00a0 Learn to trust me & look for me in every circumstance.\u00a0 It reminded me again of God\u2019s faithfulness in providing water from the rock & mana from heaven to meet the needs of the children of Israel in the desert.\u00a0 He still meets our needs today if we will take time to look around and quit complaining.<\/p>\n

In the morning we continued our pattern of the tractor would bog down, all the Manjui people would climb out, unhook the trailer, the tractor drive through, run the chain back, hook up the trailer, winch the trailer through, then hook up the trailer. Then all the Manjui people would climb back in & move on. But finally about noon we did make it through to a dry road.\u00a0 But God had taught me so much in how I should trust Him in all situations.<\/p>\n

Monday morning Julie was at the office but the news by ham radio was that the tractor had not arrived. The plane was loaded and took off about noon following the road and spotted the tractor about three hours from home.\u00a0 Everyone was sitting on the side of the road & as the plane circled they waved, there didn’t appear to be any problem. The plane went on, landing & was unloaded. \u00a0The plane took off to get a 2nd look at the tractor & trailer but as he flew over the tractor was moving & they waved him on. He radioed to say the tractor was moving<\/p>\n

When they arrived we heard the whole story about the muddy road & how God provided for them. At noon when the plane flew over they had stopped to dig honey out of a tree & as the plane flew over everyone was happily eating wild honey. One of the men had shot a deer. God is gracious & does provide for all our needs.<\/p>\n

This is a lesson I think of often when things don\u2019t go as planned.\u00a0 When going through difficult situations look for God in it instead of being discouraged or dishearten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The road was in the talcum powder stage when the Manjui people said, \u201cWe want to go to visit our people. First you said, \u201cWait for rain.\u201d Then you said, \u201cWait for the road to dry.\u201d Now you say, “The bulldozer broke the crust on the road surface & wait for a rain to harden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28017],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-fish-in-the-desert","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}