Guest Blog - Tires and Toilet Tissue

From Brian Davis, missionary at Mumena in Zambia's Northwestern Province:

Man seldom seems to be content with God’s ways. We seem to think that we can “improve” on divine will. As we are traveling south this month to encourage the church plants with whom we used to work in South Africa, I experienced a poignant reminder of this trend yesterday. I noticed that two of my tires kept losing air around their rims. After wrestling with this for 2000 kilometers, we finally had some time in Namibia to stop and have a tire shop look at the problem. As the men removed the tires from the rims, they kept pulling long strips of something from the inside of the tire. I couldn’t imagine what it was. I finally asked, and the workers replied, “It’s toilet tissue.” Dumbfounded, they explained to me, “Your tire shop must have used wet toilet paper to get the tire to seal. Shops with poor air pressure will use this technique.” Becoming annoyed, I asked, “Why?!” To which they responded, “Because it fixes their problem of not having the proper tools to do the job, but it leaves the driver with a slow leak in his rims that - as soon as the paper dries - can become a very big leak!”

In our relationship to God, I wonder how many “good ideas” we try to use (in our own understanding) that may result in a complete “blow-out” down the road: confusing gender equality with God created differences, confusing entertaining worship with spiritual worship, confusing efficiency with God ordained leadership pattern, confusing “what most people are doing” with what God wants done…

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 NIV

It’s worth considering,

Brian, Sondra, Noah, & Bryson

Pictured above: Can’t afford to have a flat with this many people wanting to go to worship! (picture by Ellis Smith, one of our campaigners in 2010)

For more information of our mission, visit our website at www.mumenamissions.org.

To contact our overseeing congregation, visit www.hillcrestonline.com.