An answer to a prayer… well, at least that’s what I think
now. This week was a little difficult to be honest! The first part was normal…
visiting with some of our friends in the township. Monday and Tuesday we were
with a friend named Hester! She is a crazy wonderful woman to hang out with.
There are absolutely no words to describe her!!! =) She let us know that she
needed help with her garden out beside her house. We didn’t even know that it
was a garden, that’s how bad of shape it was in. So we told her we would get to
work on it. The next day, we came back with supplies: carrot seeds, spinach
seeds, and beet root seeds (all by request). We spent the next couple of hours
working on this
garden. Or at least… Davie and Sarah did. Jess and I were busy
playing with the kids. Hester decided to start a creche (daycare) on Monday.
Crazy Hester!!!! So that’s how our day went!
Now let’s go to the end of our week. On Thursday, we decided
to stop by and see sweet Evalyn, the woman who had a stroke, because we hadn’t
seen her in over a week. We walked in to a house full of people. They were
cleaning and fixing things. The 
smell was gone, and I looked over to the room
where Evalyn stayed, it was open, and she wasn’t in there. I immediately began
to freak out in my mind. One of the ladies we had never met before came by and
sat with us for a moment. She told us that Evalyn passed away on Saturday. My
heart stopped. I loved this woman. She was so precious. We would come in and
sing songs of praise over her. We read her scripture. We sat with her when she
didn’t even have the energy to speak. My whole team developed a deep love for
her, and as we heard the news… all of our faces just dropped. But we knew it
was an answer to a prayer. She was healed, but in an unexpected way. She had no
more pain, and was dancing with the Lord! But this moment was just silence, and
there was pain within us as our hearts broke. But we sat there, and continued
to speak with her family. They informed us about the funeral arrangements. We
all knew that this was not a loss, it was a victory. Christ has so much work
for us to do here… right now with this family.
So, in an awkward silence, we asked if there was any way we
could help. This woman, Violet, began explaining all the family
that was coming
in to stay with them, and they didn’t have enough money to feed them all. So we
asked what we could buy. As soon as we started running out the door, she came
running after us. She wanted to tell us that she has never interacted with
white people like this before, except in her work. None of them ever seem
like they care.
WOW! How do you react to that? My heart is completely broken
for her! So, we went on our way, and bought them a good bit of food, which cost
us next to nothing! As we returned with it, they brought us back into the
house, and started crying. They were so grateful and overwhelmed by something
sooooo small for us to do, but it was HUGE for this family. These women just
began crying and thanking us for this. But we tried to point out to them that
it wasn’t us that did that, it was Christ. We told them how Christ made us all
equal. No one is higher than the other! They didn’t know what to do with it.
But it was such a good moment. We prayed with them, and then heard something
going on in the back. We went out to check, and one of the husband’s was
outside beginning to build an
extra shed/shack for the weekend. Davie started helping, and then we decided we
would come back the next day and build it for them. We got the other house
visit team, and a few leaders to come with us. We spent the next few hours
building, and as we finished, we just hung out with the family. It was a
wonderful afternoon, and we had so much fun and joy brought into our lives.
Serving others who have needs… well there are no words to express the joy that
comes from the Lord in that! The funeral is tomorrow, and we will continue
investing in this family the way the Lord wants us to. He works through
brokenness so well, so there is no telling what can happen here! Pray for this
family. Pray for my ministry team. And thank you for keeping up with what’s
going on!
I’m out for now!
-Roth
