A Sheep of His pasture

The title of choice for God for parts of this trip has been The Good Shepherd. I have seen green pastures and been by still waters when all around me has been stark scrub or (literally) flood.

His leading began before leaving Heathsville, seeing a friend from First Baptist Church who sent me off with assurance of prayer. That was followed by a seat-mate on the first leg who also prayed for me. These two were tokens of the many, many who are keeping this trip in prayer, with my thanks.

Then at JFK He led me to an angel. How else do you explain a twenty-minute consultation with an agent, when we were surrounded by others standing in lines just to our left. This angel got me to Paris in time for my connection to Nigeria.

In Nigeria I landed where I was supposed to, only to find the Shepherd already there. When I discovered that my bag was missing, that problem registered on an "Oh no!" scale below three other items: no phone number for my host, no name of where I was staying, no juice in my iPad to find Bp. Inyom's number, and no friendly face waiting to take me to the conference. At 9:00 PM at the Port Harcourt airport. Anthony, the agent for lost bags, juiced up my iPad, called the bishop who called my ride.

On our way this morning the deluge had pushed all the water–it seemed–to our side of the city. "The floods had lifted up their voice", says Psalm 93, coming inside the car and bringing us to a dead stop. But "The Lord on high is mightier", and after two tows we made it to the conference center. He does promise still waters, even in a flood.

The Good Shepherd took me to one more place, a green pasture where I was hoping to find Fulani. This pasture was a car taking a speaker to the airport. I went along for a vain effort to get my suitcase. As the other rider and I chatted, he told me that he was writing his dissertation on church planting among the Fulani. The ride to the airport ended altogether too soon.

His name is also "the Pioneer of our faith" in the role of chief missionary. More on that to come, but the Good Shepherd has wonderfully watched over this sheep.