Several pastors traveled to the border and picked up furniture, Bibles, meds, shoes, clothes, tools, paint, toys, rice, beans, and such. We helped them to break down some of the chairs and furniture so that the maximum amount of supplies could be packed into their vehicles. Everyone left with a carefully packed full load. Many donations have come in from Texas, North Carolina, and Nebraska. Dawn and I left Texas bound for a speaking opportunity at Victory Baptist Church in Flat Rock, North Carolina. On the morning of the second day, in Louisiana, disaster struck. While I was refueling the truck Dawn was coming toward me with our dog. She tripped on the uneven driveway and smashed her face into the concrete. She ruined her glasses and was bleeding from her nose and face. Our little dog panicked. I ran over and helped her to the truck. She mopped up the blood and got her nose to stop bleeding. She didn't believe anything was broken so we continued to North Carolina. The next day after speaking, great fellowship, and eating at the church; we picked up three pallets of clothes and food and went on to the VA hospital in Asheville. We were attempting to get a copy of her eyeglass prescription because she is nearly blind without glasses. The ER staff encouraged her to get a cat scan and see a doctor. This revealed that her nose was broken in two places. They provided medicine and sent us on our way.
In Bryson City, we had heard about a 10,000 pound Toyota forklift that had been vandalized and sitting for 5 years. The owner had some mechanics work on it but they were unable to get it to turn over or start. When I first saw it, I really wanted it for the ministry and prayed that God would use my hands to get it running if that were His will. That is exactly what my Lord did. After a couple of hours, the old forklift was purring like a kitten. All honor and glory go to God and Him alone. Amen. The forklift still needs a little TLC and we plan to use it on a concrete foundation pad (yet to be poured) to help build a small storage building in North Carolina. Later we intend to use the forklift to load pallets of sorted donations for distribution in Mexico. We are thankful to the Christian brother who sold us the machine for an excellent price. Before leaving Bryson City, we received more donations from Camp Living Water, the Bagwells, Cold Springs Baptist Church, and others. Once again we had more than we could haul, we call it seed for the next load.
Back in Texas Scottie's church, Maranatha Baptist had a wonderful Vacation Bible School. Scottie and Samantha managed to get their hands and clothes really dirty doing a full brake job on the back of their 93 full-size Ford van. They replaced both wheel cylinders and all the springs. That's pretty good training for an 11-year-old girl. Brother Jim and Sister Bonnie Drew came to the mission and picked out a few boxes of over the counter medicine, vitamins, and more. Please pray for Dawn's healing and another pair of glasses.
Faithfully yours,
The De Hart family