Brownouts, Blackouts & God's Provision

Togo is one of those countries where electricity is like rain: it comes and goes, and when it is here it can be an downpour or a trickle. People have learned to live with the situation. Most everybody (who has the means) uses regulators to protect their electronics from voltage fluctuation. However, when nothing is there to regulate, people sit sweating in the dark, while the food goes bad in the fridge. “If you want electricity, you’ll need to generate your own”, is what we were told on arrival. So, I started my quest for a generator that has sufficient power to keep the house light and cool (we’re talking between 8 and 10 kVA, for those who talk that kind of language). I found several, on my first survey trip. But I didn’t find the price acceptable. I don’t generally mind when people get rich, but please, not all at once and not all from me! Needless to say, we continued to use flashlights and battery-powered fans while in the meantime, I explored other avenues. I looked into buying a generator in neighbouring Ghana or even shipping one from Germany or the USA. I simply couldn’t justify spending the equivalent of a small family car on just an engine with alternator. It soon became a regular prayer request, and I know that many people have prayed and asked God to provide for us. For months it seemed that neither I, nor God, was doing anything. I felt bad, having to tell people that I still didn’t have a “powerful” solution. Until yesterday, when a missionary (who is leaving the country) offered me their generator for a good price! It is used, of course, but it has an auto-start (so I don’t have to get out of bed when the electricity goes). And although I haven’t seen it yet, I believe that this is God’s answer to our lack of power. I’ve agreed to take the machine, trusting that I will get the money before he leaves Togo. I hope, this won’t take God as long as it took him to locate the machine for us!

Tribute to a slow God
One thing that I must say, as a word of caution, if you want to trust Him shamelessly: God takes his time! Yes, he is always at work, but he really is slow (at least according to my sense of time). It seems, that it is always 5 minutes to midnight in God’s time management. He took care of the generator, after 6 months! He provided our house for us, in the same way. He takes his time, but he is never late.
God seems to come out of the shadows after we’ve had a go at things ourselves. It’s like when our children have to clean up their room or do the dishes. The parents could do it themselves much quicker and probably better, but we let our children struggle through the experience, because we want them to learn. Learning a skill and knowledge, but most of all, an attitude of trust. In the end, it’s anyway Mama who’ll have to mop the floor and dust the shelves. I wonder what would happen next time, if I didn’t even try to solve a situation myself, but left it all to God? Would he wait until moss grows under the beds or would he move in (like I do) and clean up the whole mess himself? Well, I’m not sure that I have the patience to find out. Why don’t YOU try it out and tell me what happened. I dare you!