God's Provision of a Computer

How does God’s urgent supply chain work for those serving Him in far-flung corners of the earth?

During my furlough a year and a half ago, I considered replacing my five-year-old personal laptop.  Instead, with a new generic battery, I used the same one for another year.  I could endure its increasingly slow processing speed, but grew concerned this April when it began occasionally suddenly shutting off when not connected to power.  In a land where electricity is unreliable, that’s not good.

I asked my friend Arie, who runs the best IT repair shop in town, if he could fix the machine, possibly with another new battery.  But he said that type of problem is difficult to resolve and likely to recur, so he couldn’t accept the job.  At that time, in early May, I was setting out on my two-and-a-half-week Bible Bee trip, and with that discouraging news I resigned myself to looking for a new computer upon my return home.  I prayed for God’s guidance, since locally available laptops are scarce, expensive, and uninspiring of confidence, but importation could be time-consuming, complicated, and costly as well.  I e-mailed an American visitor we expected in July to ask whether he could fit a computer into his luggage, but didn’t receive a response.

My marathon trip ended at 10pm the night before my fortieth birthday, even though my party was a few weeks later for precisely that reason.  On the afternoon of my birthday, a Sunday, an expatriate new to the area texted me, “With my in-laws coming from the States soon, would you like anything special brought? They have extra space that we can’t fill up.”  Though in my six years in Africa I’ve occasionally asked acquaintances or their visitors to carry items for me because shipping is so difficult otherwise, I’ve never had anyone explicitly offer luggage space.  This proposal from someone I barely knew, who had no idea of my need for a new computer, was definitely God’s answer to my prayer!

As if the free delivery in early June weren’t enough, God made my birthday present even more special.  With little time to shop online for a computer, I listed for Him that evening the specifications I wanted and my preferred price limit.  During my lunch break the next day, I made the corresponding search on Amazon.com.  The first result was a computer that fit all my criteria for much less than I was willing to pay.  I put it in my online cart and closed the deal that night — spending only a fraction of the time it usually takes for me to agonize over many options for a computer purchase.  Four days later, my new computer was at travelers’ home, ready to come with them to Mozambique.

But two weeks before its arrival, my old computer started suddenly shutting itself off even when connected to power.  In fact, it couldn’t even boot itself up without blacking out.  I was in trouble.  I’d counted on transferring my documents from my old computer to my new one on a flash drive.  Now would I lose them completely?

Fortunately, within minutes of my crying out to the Lord about this problem — and realizing that Christ is enough to satisfy me with His joy even if He allows me to lose all my documents — Arie assured me that his crew could still transfer the files directly from my old hard drive to the new computer.  What a relief!  And although two weeks without a computer would normally create problems for the projects I run, God had providentially moved me to work ahead the previous weekend, so I managed to keep up with all my outreaches during those two computerless weeks.

My kind Lord had one more surprise for me.  When I picked up both computers from Arie’s shop after the successful transfer of my documents, Arie told me that his team had discovered that besides my old computer’s power issue, its hard drive itself was about to die.  It was only with difficulty, and very slowly, that they had been able to recover my data.  If I had waited much longer — perhaps until the July arrival of the visitor who finally responded, after other plans had been made, that he could carry a computer for me — that would have been impossible.

That shocking news filled me with praise to my Heavenly Father who was wise enough to send power problems that pressed me into seeking a new computer just before my documents were lost on a hard drive I had no idea was about to give out.  In His care for this servant of His far from Western supply chains, He ordained the purchase and delivery of my new laptop exactly when it was needed.  What a mighty God we serve!