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| Ru and Viv outside the church we were ministering in |
Sometimes ministry stuff just doesn’t work out the way we
plan.
Nyasha and I had been invited to speak to a gathering of
women and youth about 40 minutes outside of town. We were going to be speaking about addiction,
how it impacts the security of families and how people related to or in
community with alcoholics can help.
In order to arrive on time, we needed to leave Saturday
morning around 9:00. Since the place we
were speaking at was near a game park, we decided we would pack a picnic lunch
and take the girls to see some animals afterwards.
Friday night Vivi didn’t sleep well--she is teething
terribly. Our poor little girl has
several teeth coming through and is struggling through the pain. She is biting all of us at any given moment,
she is clingy and whinny and some nights just can’t sleep. Friday night she was awake from about
1:30-5:30 intermittently crying and wanting to play. Nyasha and I took turns sleeping and doing
baby duty. I love that man, what on
earth would I do without him?
He left for work Saturday morning at 7:30. Vivi and I were asleep, he decided to let us
rest. I woke up startled and disoriented
at 8:45! FIFTEEN MINUTES TO GET ALL
THREE OF US READY AND OUT THE DOOR. That
is an impossibility. We did the best we
could and got on the road a few minutes late and Nyasha got stuck at work and
wasn’t able to come with us….
So now we are running late and I am on my own with both
girls! We did our best to try to follow the directions, but we made a few wrong
turns before we made it to our destination! This could’ve been a nightmare, but
the people I was scheduled to speak to were so gracious and wonderful!
Because we were running late and they were running late, I
ended up having to speak during Viv’s nap time.
Ru was doing a great job playing with her little sister while I worked,
but Viv had enough and I still had about 10 minutes to go. Ru brought her to me and because she was
uncomfortable, in a new place and overtired, she wanted to nurse. So there I was with a baby trying to rip my
shirt off and a room full of people with their eyes on us, listening to me
speak. I apologized, made a joke about
how grateful I was that this was taking place in Zimbabwe and not the USA and
continued my talk while I stood nursing little miss Vivi. There was one pastor that was especially
stone faced. I just knew that he was
struggling through my nursing on stage!
Honestly I wanted to curl up and die. I just couldn’t believe this was happening. We survived the next ten minutes while I
distractedly finished up. Vivi fell
asleep and I put her down in her car seat. There was a queue of people to
chat before I left. One of the first people
was the stone faced pastor. I couldn’t
believe it. He affirmed me in such a rich and kind way. And then THIS:
“You are a real missionary.
In my lifetime, I have met many people here to help, but what you are
doing is practical and loving. I so
appreciated how you shared with us. And
I wanted to let you know not to feel bad about nursing your child in the middle
of our time. You were attending to a
need without dropping the ball on your responsibility. That was such a picture of how we must learn
to minister to others. Jesus often ministered to people on His way elsewhere. I
was really touched by that. Thank you so much.”
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| I love this picture, I have the same one with Nyasha and Ru!! |
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| JOY. |
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| She wanted Vivi to love this tortoise as much as she does.... but she totally wasn't into it! |
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| Look Vivi! A GIRAFFE! |
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| What a gorgeous day for a game drive! |
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| We had so much fun with the lions! Viv kept roaring at them! |
Sometimes ministry stuff just doesn’t work out the way we
plan. Sometimes it is better.
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