20May06

20-May-06

I passed by a go-go struggling to walk up a hill on Saturday morning after I dropped my kids off to play soccer.  I prayed, “Lord, should I go back and pick her up?”  I stopped the car and watched her in my rearview mirror, as she continued to struggle up the hill, with a very evident limp in her gait.  There were no cars behind me, so I started backing up, she stopped, as she saw me coming towards her.  She hobbled across the street to get in the car, and I asked her where she was going.  She said that she was going to town, to go to the Catholic church.  I asked her if she was going to service today, and she said that she was going to clean the church.  She went on to tell me that she goes twice a week to clean this church.  I asked her how old she was and she told me that she was 65.  I was amazed, as she looked much older.  I asked if she had children and she said that she had 4.  She couldn’t remember how many grandchildren she had, so she began to tell me how many children each of her children had, and I added up about 25 grandchildren.  I asked her if any of them lived with her, and she said that they all lived in their own homes.  I am amazed at the dedication of this elderly lady to make the long trip to town twice a week just to clean the church.  I don’t know if she gets paid or not, I didn’t ask her, but it is quite a sacrifice just to make a trip like that in her condition, without transportation, twice a week.  I dropped her off at the bus rank in town, where she said that she would take a bus to her church.  This process probably takes all day on those two days a week, but this little go-go is willing to make the sacrifice.  Am I willing to make the sacrifices that I need to make to be obedient to what God wants me to do each day?

Praise the Lord for safe keeping!  Also on Saturday, after I got home from taking the go-go to town, an interesting event happened.  The kids and I were in the house.  Nathanael had a couple of friends over, and they were playing a game, Gabby was studying and Danielle, Joelle and I were cleaning up the kitchen.  All of us were downstairs.  Candice, a girl that is staying with us from Gabby’s school, was upstairs in the room studying.  She came down, looking rather distraught and asked if we knew that there was a man that was up in Gabby’s room.  I knew that Daran was still in Manzini at the care point, and there were no other men in the house.  At first I thought that she had been asleep and was dreaming.  We started looking through the house and went outside and the gate was open.  Then I started to get a little frightened and asked Candice what had happened.  She said that she heard something and looked up and there was a man standing in the room.  She asked him what he wanted, and he asked for Jacob.  She told him there was no Jacob here.  He tried to speak to her in Siswati, but she told him she didn’t understand.  She said that he then smiled, turned and walked back down the stairs and out the door.  I’m not sure what he wanted, maybe he thought that someone else that he knew still lived here, or if he had evil intent, we may never know.  Praise the Lord, no harm was done, and nothing was stolen.  Lesson learned, keep the door locked during the day even when we are at home!  Thank you Lord for protecting us!