The Oven

It’s been a while since my last post. At that time, my oven was out and I have been doing some baking over at the teacher’s and Brenda’s (one of my team-mates) houses. I just want to share with you that my oven, has since been fixed as from last Tuesday. Praise the Lord, it was an answer to our prayers.

What’s so great about an oven being fixed you may ask?

Over here in Togo, one does not get access to a repairman easily. Moreover, even if you find one, he may not have the necessary tools or parts to replace the broken part. Added to that, most of the repairs done are done through trial and error! We have a fridge which has been with the repairman for over 5 months now and he is still ”testing” it.

Anyway, we had someone look at the oven and after fiddling with it and tearing it apart, he told us that the thermostat was broken and that was the reason why the oven would not light up. He said that he could fix so that the oven would light up, but we will not be able to control the fire with the oven knob. That was a mistake as the oven smoked whenever it was lit!

So for almost 2 months, I tried to do as little baking as possible and when I did, I went to the teachers’ or Brenda’s house. It wasn’t a big deal, though a little troublesome. What bothered me was that the stove was to go to a sister here after we leave and I did not feel good with the oven not working.

Meanwhile, we contacted Maurice, our contact person in the States, and he ordered the part and sent it to us. We received the part after about 3 weeks. The repairman who checked the oven was out of town so Anthony tried to do it himself. On the first attempt, after he meddled with it for some time, it lit up but there was lots of black smoke.  After a couple of days, he tried again and it would light up and seemed to be working but when he put everything back together, it wouldn’t work. After all the time spent on it, it was a little discouraging.

Meanwhile, my teammates were thinking that since the teachers eat with each family 4 days a week and they do not do much baking, they suggested that we switch our stove. They suggested that, should the teachers wanted to bake, they could just go next door, where the Hollands live, to do their baking. I felt it wasn’t fair for the teachers to have to give up their oven to make it more convenient for me. And I really did not mind driving over there to do my baking. Anyway, I felt that if we switched the stoves, the suggestion would have to come from the teachers themselves so that they will not feel that they have to do it just because we asked them to.

On Monday, Jenna (one of the teachers) called me and offered to switch our stoves.  I said that I would think about it and will let them know later. I did not know why I was reluctant to do so but somehow felt that I should wait.

Anyway, the following day, Anthony dismantled the oven again and fiddled with it and, lo and behold, the oven worked!  I told him that he was my hero for working so hard on it.

A thought came to me then that the oven works because our God is Gracious. In His love and goodness, He made it work because He saw his children’s willingness to sacrifice something for others. He was able to work it out that neither one of us, the teachers nor I, needed to do without!  I do not think that it is a coincidence that the oven worked on the third attempt. I have no doubt that our Jehovah Jireh can cause and loves to work out everything for good to us who love him but sometimes it gives Him extreme pleasure to see us give up something of ourselves . He wants us to learn something to help us die to self and be more like Him.

He shows he cares for us even in little significant things like an oven!

May we continue to die to self that we may grow to be like our Lord Jesus.