God's little helper

I was recently reminded a little of when I was going to personally finance my daughter’s family decision to be missionaries in Togo, French West Africa. How was that to happen? I was going to sell Watkins vanilla to Alaskans. But it turns out Watkins does not promote only vanilla so I had special permission to take 17 boxes of a variety of Watkins products to Haines, Alaska, for the Southeast Alaska State Fair. It was easy getting the product there; we mailed them.

When we arrived in Haines, our friends said for us to use their Cadillac for the week; the keys were in the ignition. Of course, we are talking an old car with Alaska rust. One door was wired closed so everyone climbed in through the driver’s side. I will never know why John went along with my scheme, but he did. He patiently carried all of those boxes into the tiny façade of a building allotted for just my product. That structure was leftover from the making of the movie “White Fang.” It still stands today.

Well, as folks have heard me say many times, “We spent a week in Haines one day.” --years before this trip. But even seasoned Haines residents had never seen rain to compare with the Watkins week. Even those brave enough to attend the Fair stayed in the one building with a roof over their heads. Even the area with a stage had a tarp that had to be emptied of the water that accumulated. And it seems that before week’s end that tarp gave way.

The façade building was only deep enough for one person at a time, There was no electricity to it, and besides being damp, it was cold. By week’s end, someone had run an extension cord out to me and plugged a space heater into the socket to keep me warm. At least my ankles dried out from the heat source.

The only prospective customers dropping by wanted to talk about how they had once sold Watkins, and what a great product it was and how they thought they still had some.

Well, as the week wound down, we loaded all of our fortune-making product into the car; onto the ferry, and into our Juneau friends’ garage. The only real sell I made was to Kathy, who signed up to be a salesperson; I am certain it was a pity move. Anyway, imagine the poor folks behind us in line at the airport…luggage, at least 15 boxes, well you know. And Alaska Airlines did not even charge us for the extra! AND the Watkins folks took back all of the unsold items.

Anyway, that is part of the story of one of the lessons God has taught me when I try to do His job.