God shows His goodness in interesting ways…including through a broken stove!

God has been teaching me many lessons since our move to Togo nearly 10 months ago. One of the lessons has been patience and waiting on Him (see my last blog). Another has been to trust in God’s strength in my own weakness and have faith that He will work things out. And God used our stove to help me continue to learn these lessons:

When we moved into our house, we bought the highest quality stove available here because we wanted it to last for a long time and so many things here are of such poor quality that they simply don’t last long. It was quite expensive, much more than an equivalent stove would cost in the US. Soon after we bought it, however, it was clear that expensiveness and highest quality available didn’t mean it was actually a great stove. Even at the lowest settings, everything kept burning. We called the company’s service technician to come take a look, but he couldn’t see anything wrong and promised to do a little research about it. We never heard back from him. But three weeks later, the glass window of the oven shattered into thousands of pieces. Still under warranty, we brought the stove into the store’s repair shop…where it was for 6 months!

During those months I was on the phone and at that repair shop multiple times. Without going into all the details, here’s the gist of the problem: Although the oven had a dial with temperatures on it, it turns out that it actually had no internal thermostat to regulate the temperature and even at the lowest possible setting, it was still a much hotter temperature than most things are baked at. I was told all kinds of things throughout the months. The most amusing was that they actually bought a frozen pizza and baked it … and since it didn’t burn, tried to prove to me that there was no problem with the stove. And they also told me to bring in my own food and bake it there…which I did not bother to do as I had already brought in an oven thermometer to prove how high the temperatures actually were! In the end, their conclusion was that the way the stove was made was how it was supposed to be and that stoves weren’t supposed to be able to be set at a certain temperature (even though it had a temperature dial and the manual provided a guide as to what temperatures and cooking durations to select for various foods).

When it became evident that there wasn’t actually a problem with our stove that could be repaired but rather that it was false advertising on the company’s part, we tried to get a refund. However, since I was told that was impossible and against company policy, I moved up the chain of command until finally I met with the head of the company. And there God worked: he issued a full refund within minutes of our conversation! The fact that it had been 6 months was the turning point for him. This refund may not sound miraculous to you, but after all the time and energy we had invested in resolving this stove issue, it was huge to us! But what followed after that, is what makes this story possibly truly miraculous: while waiting for the accountant to issue the check, we started talking about what I’m doing here. In telling about the school, the conversation then turned to location and land. It turns out he and some business partners are investing in a “mini-city” – I’m thinking probably like a new development – with housing (villas) and shops…and all that in the general area where we are living! A school as part of this development would be mutually beneficial to their development and to the school. I have no idea at this point if this is the location God has in mind for the school, but it is certainly something we’ll pursue until it is clear one way or another.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the frustrating process and long wait of a resolution to the problem of our stove for over 6 months resulted in land for the school? It would have been well worth it all. And even if the result isn’t land for the school, God once again proved He was faithful simply to provide us with a full refund of the stove and at the same time continue to grow our reliance and trust in Him to work things out. God is good, all the time. (This song continues to be one of my favorites: The Goodness of God).