Haunting

My haunting this year didn’t come Saturday night in the form various trick-or-treaters looking for candy. (Halloween isn’t celebrated here in Niger.) But, I was haunted Sunday morning when I sat behind a beautiful little girl of two or three years old with sad eyes. The Tuesday before I had gotten up from what I thought was going to be a sick day to go to her mother’s funeral. It was great to watch how the church was reaching out and making a difference in this family’s life. There were a number of ladies in the church who were helping to care for the little girl and her older brother and their father got up to testify about how much the people of the church had been caring for him and his family over the past few weeks. That is the church in action and what being a church family is all about.

My heart still breaks for this little girl who will soon have a hard time remembering what her mom looked like, especially because her story is not an unusual one here. I was buying “fadi masa” (a deep fried dough something like a timbit) on the street here the other day and talking to my friend who sells them. She said that she became a widow last January and that she was raising three little ones, the oldest just started to school. She is in her twenties. And she isn’t the only widow with young children on my section of the street. Please pray for these families that have faced tragedy and hardship and pray that God will use us to share His love.

Please remember Dave this weekend. He is leading a pastor’s training seminar on pastoral care and counseling and he is also preaching on Sunday. Thanks to those of you who prayed about my cold. I am glad to say that it hasn’t spread too far with the rest of the family, but I am still having a hard time getting over it. It keeps moving back and forth between my throat and my sinuses. I am truly grateful that I was feeling well enough to go to my neighbour’s wedding last Saturday.