Friday was a day that by all appearances was about to go down as one of the more frustrating of my time here. Our baby is still not sleeping well at night and likes early mornings, so even little things can be highly irritating and the day was shaping to take the cake in the irritating department.
By early afternoon I found myself with a few extra minutes on my hands. Our great teammates were taking care of food for our evening team time and so I turned my thoughts to what else needed to be accomplished for the week. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd made it out to see my friends at the market in Vridi and so I decided to set off to do that and try to mark another errand off of my to do list while I was out and about.
Benjamin doesn't like car rides and so decided to serenade me for a little while with a song about terrible mothers and hated car seats, at least that's what I got in the translation. ;) He had just stopped his warbling when I had an encounter that I'd best not go into detail about. It would most likely end up in me insulting certain people best left uninsulted if I would like to keep my visa to stay in the country! SEVERAL minutes later, and a few dollars shorter, I moved on in my trip down the road muttering to myself about injustice and untruth. GGGRRR! Because I was muttering to myself and not completely thinking through where I was going, I missed my turn. I had to loop back, losing another 10 minutes, but then couldn't find the side errand I had meant to do. GGGGRRRRR! Now I've been on the road A LOT longer than I meant to be and Benjamin started up his song. GGGGGGRRRRRRR! If I wasn't so stubborn and hard headed, I probably would have given up and headed for home. Finally arriving at my destination, I hopped out to see rain clouds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! I went on thinking my time now would just me a greeting and goodbye. I haven't been storying with the two ladies I was going to see anyway. One is a Muslim and one a Catholic. Both are pretty content in their positions and since they see us as all being on the same road of worshiping the same God, are happy to see me, but don't see their need to change.
I greeted. I was polite. I asked about their families and everyone we mutually know. I looked around at the Catholic widow's meager products in search of something that I could use or give to someone to use in an effort to help her make enough money to eat today. Not seeing anything, I was thinking of how I might palm her some supper money. Suddenly my little Muslim friend announced, "I had a dream about Jesus, tell her about it, Christine." Now one might think this would be the first piece of information you would give a friend that has been beating her head against the wall trying to tell you about, but in traditional African style, she'd waited until the end of the visit to announce her news. Now my Muslim friend speaks some French, but not much. She understands things if I say them REALLY slow and don't use any words of substance! My Catholic friend speaks a language they both understand well and French well, so is our translator if there is something important to be said.
You may remember my Muslim friend as the mother of a baby I had asked you to pray for a few months ago. Thanks to your prayers for the baby, he came back from death's door. Even that is a great miracle as I wasn't sure he'd even make it through the day when I posted that note. He still seems to me to have something seriously wrong, but looks healthy enough besides terribly poor muscle development.
Back to the dream, it all boiled down to; she had seen Jesus in a dream and the others in her dream had said that JESUS was the answer to her child's healing. Now she's always given credit to the prayers that were prayed for that baby, for bringing him this far. The dream was just absolute acknowledgment of that. She's also had a feeling from the dream that there were further keys to her understanding Jesus. Fortunately, for right now, she has sought those answers from me. I told a quick story of the paralyzed man with four friends. In that story, if you remember Jesus himself makes reference to their faith and His ability to forgive sins. I told the story as simply as possible and she seemed to understand. Pray with me for Fatimata, her baby and my friend Christine. Pray that God reveals the truth of salvation to these women through the divine healing of this baby.
Thanks so much for your prayers!
Heather
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