Diapers From Heaven

Genovieva and Stephen Beattie were soon to load a container and send it on a ship to go to an orphanage they were starting in Romania. God had provided blankets, food, milk, bottles, cribs, musical toys, shampoo and powder for babies-but no diapers.

"Lord," they prayed, "You said, 'Ask and you will receive.'  You are the Father of orphans. Please provide diapers."
Early the next morning the phone rang. "I am calling from a mission in Virginia," a man's voice said.  "We received some boxes of clothes and we don't know what to do with them.  Could you take them for Romania?"

"Yes," Genovieva answered trying to sound appreciative, but in her heart she was sad. They asked for diapers not clothes.

Twenty-five boxes arrived on their porch. Stephen got a knife and opened one of them. "Diapers!" Genovieva shouted.  "Praise the Lord!"

Stephen opened the second box.  "More diapers!" he exclaimed. Immediately they counted the diapers in the first three boxes.  There were eighty in each box.
"That means we have a total of two thousand diapers!" Genovieva calculated.

They went into the house and knelt down and shouted praises and thanks to the Lord. They then called their friends.  "The Lord sent us two thousand diapers in answer to prayer."

But it did not end there...

The customs in Romania required a detailed description of the boxes they sent in the container.  The next day, when Stephen counted the diapers in each box, he found that some of the boxes contained less than eighty diapers.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Genovieva," he said, "but we only received one thousand, five hundred."

"Oh," Genovieva said and her face dropped. She felt bad because her praise report was exaggerated by five hundred diapers.  Lord, what shall we do?  I can't call everyone again...

Suddenly Genovieva knew.  She knelt down, looked up to heaven and said, "Lord, You owe us five hundred diapers!  Everyone is praising You for two thousand."

They laughed and then went on with their work.

The next morning another call came from the same mission.  "We have some boxes of shoes and we are short of space," she said. "Could you take them for Romania?"
The next day a couple dropped the boxes on their porch and left. There were two open boxes of shoes; the other boxes looked familiar... Could it be possible?

Quickly Stephen came and opened one.

"More diapers!" Thirty-five boxes! They laughed with joy as they counted them.  This time they counted very carefully.  There were two thousand, five hundred diapers. They now had a total of four thousand diapers from heaven.  They celebrated with a cup of English tea and a piece of apple pie.  Their joy was complete.

And they prayed that the Lord would enable them to help as many children in Romania as the number of diapers He had sent.

Jesus said, "Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete" (John 16:24).