All in God’s Hands

By Dwayne Harris

It is Wednesday again, one week since being shot. On Monday the EENT Doc removed the balloon and drain tube from my sinus and the chest specialist doctor was just here and removed my chest drainage tube today as well as the staples in my chest. My body is now free from external accessories and I praise God for the rapid healing and recovery that he has given me this last week.

I wanted to add a little more about how God had everything in place to continue the work that I have been doing with the hanger construction. For the last month I had been working on getting arrangements made for the delivery of 5 container vans that will make up the walls of the hanger. Several things have to be in the right condition in order to have them delivered. #1 the road that reaches the hanger site has to be graveled and culverts installed in several spots, second it had to stop raining long enough for the road and airstrip to dry out in order for the trucks to get in and, third we had to get a piece of equipment that could unload them. Two weeks ago the government was able to gravel the road and install a few culverts so that fixed problem #1. I thought I had things arranged with our neighbor, Jose for the use of an excavator he had, but he had no truck to transport it. He assured me that it would be back early in the week and they could bring it down. With this planned I arranged for the trucks to deliver all 5 containers on Thursday and kept praying that God would control the weather and keep everything dry. The beginning of the week past and I patiently waited for word from our neighbor. Wednesday morning he arrived and I went with him to look at the excavator. We found it was being worked on and would not be together for another two days. I had just one day as the container vans were to be delivered Thursday. Jose assured me that he had a boom crane that could unload them and it could be driven down there itself without needing a truck to transport it. So we went and looked at that and made arrangements for them to drive down early Thursday morning. We had just arrived back from making these arrangements when the incident with the robbers happened. As I was in the emergency room being prepared for surgery, I gave Bob, our short-term volunteer, instructions on what needed done to prepare for the container arrival and how to place them on the hanger pad. The next day I learned that everything had been pushed back to Friday for the container van delivery but everything was being arranged and prepared. Several of the local church members volunteered to help out, and our missionary Briane and his family had just come down from Mayoyo so he helped as well. Briane described to me later that God had put all of the right people in place with all of the necessary skills to make the delivery of the container vans go smoothly and quickly. I left it all in God’s hands and the work went forward even with me out of action for a week or two.

I praise God for all of your prayers which I am sure has sped my healing. I am thankful for yet another experience that has increased my faith and trust in God and his plan. Even if we can’t see the reason at the time, we can be assured that all things work together for the good of those who love God. I can claim the promise in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

We see that battle between good and evil intensifying on every side. Everyone that we know personally, it seems that is impacting this world for Christ is being attacked in various ways. The devil works by creating conflict with other people, he exploits any weakness we have that can drag us down or that he can use to harm God’s work. He will take Christ’s workers down physically through disease, depression, or physical injury. God allows these things at times to increase our faith and trust in him and to develop a more Christ-like character in us. Praise God, all we have to do is to keep looking up and move forward in faith, surrendering daily, knowing that God is in control of all things. Look up for our redemption draweth nigh.

P.S. The guy that shot me was literally beaten and stoned within an inch of his life by the neighbors and police after we left. He was unconscious for a full day after he arrived at the local government hospital. He is now in prison with one of the other robbers. God gave this man a second chance at life as well. Please pray for him that he will surrender his life to Jesus as he has time to sit and contemplate the decisions he has made. We plan on visiting him with the prison ministries group from the local church here.

Note from Wendy: It is Friday now. Dwayne was discharged yesterday and we are staying in a house on the hospital compound. He is doing great, just taking it easy. I feel like I’ve just raised a child in one week He still is limited in what he can do but he is improving every day. His right arm and chest is painful, understandably and he can’t lift his arm up very far, but everyone is amazed at his speedy recovery. We are so thankful for what God has done. More later . . .