Perhaps you don't usually think of machines and equipment as being sick, but think about it. Remember the time your vacuum cleaner lost its breath because of a dust ball clog in its throat. Or how about your van speeding along nicely one day, extremely lazy the next and quietly died by the side of the road the next time you took it out.
Well, the radio transmitter that we installed in Monrovia, Liberia in 2007 is very sick, and is not able to perform its task of sending the gospel to the listeners in that part of Africa. This is its first attack of illness since we've installed it so we rejoice in its faithfulness even as we grieve its misery.
We have been using the Internet to send e-mail messages to the Engineering Staff to diagnose and repair the transmitter's sickness. Test this. Tell us which red lights are on. Check the modules. Use the oscilloscope. Give us the meter readings.
SLOW BUSINESS!! The transmitter has been off air for almost two months now. The Internet is not reliable. It is sick many days as well. Our messages get lost. There are language difficulties even though we are all supposedly speaking English in our e-mails back and forth. The Engineering Staff do not have our Western idea of time and effort. (If they did, they would perspire profusely and probably expire in that heat. We almost did!)
But, even as we long for an end to this sickness, we feel that this is a training session far more severe, and more effective and valuable, than any we were able to give in person in 2007. Listen carefully. Write simply. Explain it again. And again. Pray more. Endure. Try it again. And again. Think. Focus.
We could go in person and may still have to. A trip to Liberia is not an easy undertaking. Long flights, expensive visas, expensive tickets, and expensive parts and tools to carry, hostile conditions. We have other commitments until at least November. We might be able to send another “techie” in our place, but we know this transmitter's innards!
For now, we feel God saying to keep working at it this way.
Join us in prayer, please, for HIS wisdom, for HIS patience, for e-mail accessibility, for HIS anointing of people and parts....and for that delightful moment of full healing to this sick machine sometime soon.
