‘God Is Taking Care of Us in a Big Way’

It was really bad news. We had faced setbacks all along the journey of building and shipping the new mission plane, but nothing like this.

Agent Laura showed me her computer screen. “I submitted our documentation. It’s in the customs system, but we haven’t been assigned a channel,” she explained. “The automatic sort feature went down.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Red channel guaranteed,” she replied. Just then, her boss, Walter, walked through the door.

 “I’m so sorry,” he said. “It’s going to go red channel. We did all we could.”

“Is that certain?” I probed, knowing that red channel meant months of extra paperwork and tens of thousands more in taxes.

“An administrator will have to make a manual decision, since the automatic system is down,” Walter replied. “[With it] being a new airplane, there is 100 percent chance they will assign red channel.” He shrugged and walked back to his office.

It wasn’t that Walter and Laura didn’t care. They were very sympathetic to our mission to the remote jungle communities of their homeland of Bolivia. The fact was simply that, as my agents, they couldn’t do any more to help; the situation was out of their hands.

I took a deep breath. Inside I was feeling an untimely smile trying to sneak out. “So, it would take a miracle to be assigned green channel now?” I ventured.

Laura was still studying her computer screen. She looked pensive but didn’t reply. I thought back to how big her eyes had been when I had laid the long awaited, miraculous donation for import tax on her desk the previous week. We had already seen the impossible happen in this process.

“So, it would be a miracle if this goes green channel?” I persisted.

“Yes,” she admitted.

That night, our mission aviation community around the world mobilized and dozens of prayers went up for deliverance. Jodi and I reminded God that it was His airplane and that we had come up against the impossible again. I was not sure God would give us what we wanted, but I was sure He would do something to turn the situation for good.

The next morning, my phone buzzed.

“It is green channel,” the message read with excited emojis added. Thankfulness washed over me.

“Miracle,” I wrote back.

“I’m presenting papers for the container and tools now,” Laura wrote.

“That would be another miracle,” I replied with a prayer emoji.

“Yes, it would,” she agreed.

I asked our mission aviation group to pray again. Soon we had the news. The container and tools had also been assigned green channel. They were ours, free and clear!

“God is taking care of us in a big way,” I wrote.

“Very true,” was the reply.

When I met Laura and Walter in their office an hour later, none of us could stop smiling. What was there to say? We had seen the impossible happen. God had shown Himself strong and, willing or not, we were all witnesses.

David J. Knott and his wife, Jodi, direct Gospel Mission Aviation, an Outpost Centers International (OCI) member and registered supporting ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bolivia under the local project name “B3.” Gospel Mission Aviation is not operated by the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.