God Ships Before We Order

I was driving to a Christmas program where my friend, Don Grant, and I were to share some music of the season.  My cell phone rang, displaying a number I did not recognize with an area code from out of state.  My first thought was to let the phone ring and let the caller leave a message.  So many calls from unknown callers end up being robo-marketing calls or wrong numbers.  For whatever reason, I decided to answer this one.  The caller identified himself as Kenneth, a missionary with Baptist Medical and Dental Missions International.  Kenneth serves at the Thomas Herrington Bible Institute in Honduras, a school that trains Honduran pastors to serve Honduran churches.  Kenneth said he was calling me because he heard that I have been known to bring or send a guitar to Honduras that doesn’t make the return trip.  The guitars I take are given to a local pastor whose church doesn’t have any musical instruments for worship.  Kenneth said that one of the pastors at the school had recently started a new church in a very poor area and had no instruments for their worship services.  He wondered if I could find a way to send a guitar for this church as soon as possible.  I let his request sink in for a moment, then I answered, “Kenneth, the guitar is already on the way.”  Three months before I received Kenneth’s request, I had put a guitar in the hands of a pastor who is going to Honduras with a mission team in January.  I told Kenneth I would be sure the guitar got to him so he could give it to this student.  In God’s great plan and provision, the guitar was on the way before the request for it was made.  God ships before we order. 

For the past four years, I’ve undertaken a mission project I call “One-Way Guitars.”  Not surprisingly, I chose a name with a double meaning.  The guitars travel one-way to Honduras because they are given to churches in need.  The guitars are also “one way” because they are sent for the purpose of helping local churches lead people to Christ, the one way to salvation. 

The guitars I send are used instruments donated by people who have a guitar in their home that is not being used.  I receive these donated instruments, make small repairs and adjustments to them, equip them with extra strings, guitar picks, a guitar strap and an electronic tuner, and take or send them to Honduras.  I couldn’t imagine that so small a gift could have such a huge impact upon a church or bring such encouragement to the pastors of these poor congregations. 

If you have a guitar that you’re not using and want to send to the mission field, I hope you’ll contact me at deevaughan@standrewsbaptist.org. You can know the joy of equipping a church to worship Christ and spread the good news.