God often uses the trivial or discarded things of this world to bring bountiful blessings to others, even things on which we do not put a great value. If someone gave you an old wooden pallet, would it make a difference in your life?
The rainy season has started unseasonably early in South Sudan and with it comes the flooding of fields, crops, and even roads. Traditionally people move from their homes to cattle camps in the highlands and wait out the 4-6 month season of heavy rains, an annual and cyclical inconvenience. This season however, over 1 million people have fled their homes during the severe fighting and dare not return or venture to the highlands in the midst of a war that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Such people have been clustered into crowded camps and settlements to find refuge from the fighting ... living in makeshift shelters with earthen floors. With the torrential rains, the lives of the million women, children and men in cramped quarters have gone from harsh to horrible as water pours in where they sit, they eat, and they sleep. Such is the predicament for the thousands of refugee IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) who are camped a short walk from our home here in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan.
Which brings us to the pallets. Outside our storeroom, where we have received
hundreds of boxes of medicine and relief supplies each month, sits a pile of 75
neglected wooden pallets collecting dust. “What are you intending on doing with these?”
I asked Bill. “Firewood”, he replied
jokingly, thinking back to our native Maine (the temperature reached 108
degrees in South Sudan today).
Considering the predicament of the hundreds of families
living in tents, we contacted a group working in the refugee camp and offered
the pallets to those who needed them. They
were elated that we had such a practical solution to a pressing problem … and
the pallets were taken away in short order.
The Bible often talks about small things: mustard seeds,
five loaves of bread, a cup of cold water … God can use the minor and seemingly
insignificant things in this world to bless His people! He does it time and time again…..even
through people like us.
