The Tale of Two Battles

Once upon a time, there lived a man named Gideon.  He was a valiant warrior with a hard head and a huge skeptical streak—not unlike a few of us today.  The event in his life that I seem to be re-living for the past two weeks begins in the historical book of Judges, chapter seven. 

God wants Israel to know that it is by His power they will be delivered from their enemies, so as they gather for battle, He tells Gideon that using all 32,000 men won’t cut it.  Gideon sends home all who are afraid and trembling…22,000 men leave. God still doesn’t like the odds, sending the remaining 10,000 Hebrews out against around 135,000 Midianites seems too many.  He tells Gideon to send the men to get a drink—300 men drink the water out of their cupped hands, Gideon sends the rest of them home.  Finally, God is satisfied that the victory will be credited to Him—off they go to do battle with a clay pot, a trumpet and a torch!  (They win, of course, but I leave it to you to read the account for yourself!)

Unlikely heroes, unlikely weapons, unlikely outcome.

Once upon a time there lived some women named Jan, Delilah and Lexi.  They were working with a great group of people to bring a miracle technology that would dispose of garbage and create energy at the same time.  A couple of nice men from this group, Mr. Kim and Cal, were going to meet these women in Ghana to explain the process to Ghanaian government officials as well as other influential people.

Mr. Kim was traveling from Korea and Cal was arriving via ship.  But that was too organized and too many people, so Mr. Kim was unable to get his vaccinations and receive his visa in time—Cal continued on, alone.

Delilah, Jan and Lexi left Seattle and arrived in New York, intending to go on to Accra, Ghana.  But that was too many people, so Lexi’s visa wasn’t accepted—Jan and Delilah went on alone. (Lexi went back home to Seattle.)

Cal arrived at Accra one day before Delilah and Jan.  He didn’t have a nice change of clothes, he didn’t have the presentation materials, he didn’t have the video clip to show—he had asked the ladies to bring it all with them from Seattle.  Well, he had asked Lexi, but, oops, because of the confusion in New York…Cal was left with the knowledge in his head, the amended presentation on his laptop, a pair of jeans and a Mariners t-shirt.

Jan and Delilah arrived with eight pieces of luggage, none of which was their personal baggage.  The bags all continued donated items for the Buduburam Refugee Camp where Point Hope works in Ghana.  The remaining five bags (including the two with their own clothing) ended up staying in New York and then (last we heard) being sent on to the Dominican Republic.  Delilah was relieved to find she had thought to put her hair dryer in her carry-on luggage, along with a very few changes of clothing.  Jan had yarn, knitting needles, granola bars and fruit snacks in her carry-on…no clothes, just the essentials!

Cal, Delilah and Jan went on to make a couple of very well received presentations.  Of course, in the meantime: the electricity and the access to the internet went in-and-out, Delilah’s hair dryer blew up, the video clip wouldn’t upload from the file Cal was able to receive via the internet, Jan wore the same (hot) black pair of pants with flip-flops until the lovely ladies of Buduburam sewed both Jan and Delilah outfits to look presentable for the meetings, at both meetings where Cal presented his slide show there were technical difficulties, the last one resulting in his inability to show all the slides…and the container of medical supplies was still sitting in port almost two months later, unable to clear through customs without a HUGE bill from duty charges (but that’s another battle which will be fought and won in a later telling)!

Unlikely participants, unreliable tools, unbelievable outcome! 

This victory isn’t complete, the battle is still being fought, and the end is not yet history.  But what we learned from the story of Gideon is that God can achieve miracles with little more than a few people and a lot of noise…and by the end of the week, Cal, Delilah and Jan all qualified as cracked pots!

 

 

 

Comments

[Rach]

I love my cracked pots. :)