God moments

It doesn’t matter how busy we are when we open ourselves up to be available to what God would have us do in any given day he arranges things that we don’t expect. I have had a few of these God moments over the last few weeks despite my hectic schedule.
Two weeks ago, I was taking the woman who was living with us to meet our language teacher so that she could do some language instruction with him while she was in Niamey having medical treatment. Part of the way to his house we were stopped by some friends that I had made at the last wedding in our neighbourhood. They were going to visit the bride, who is a friend, in her new home and invited us to come along. I explained that we were going somewhere else, but that I would like to go sometime soon because I didn’t know where her new house was. Susan, the missionary looking for language lessons, told me that I couldn’t miss out on an invitation like this. So we changed our plans and went with the young girl and older woman. Along the walk we chatted and as is customary here I greeted the ladies that we came across. What I didn’t expect was that the older woman rebuked a number of the other ladies on route for not greeting me back! When we got to the new bride’s home she was somewhere else so the young girl went to get her and we visited with the older woman and a neighbour. After waiting quite awhile we decided that we needed to keep going if we hoped to find our house before dark (and also because of Susan’s condition she shouldn’t sit for long periods of time). As we left we met the bride and the young girl and I apologized that we couldn’t stay longer and needed to head back. So they walked with us some of the way and then the young girl was sent with us to make sure we made it home. Along the way back, we saw some teenagers that were painting their feet with henna. They asked if I wanted mine done too. So, I slipped my foot out of my sandal and let the girls paint my feet. The only problem I had is that for the rest of the walk I had to carry my sandals in one hand and hold my skirt in the other, to allow my feet to dry. What I didn’t expect was the reaction of the other people we meet on the way home, I must have had three different ladies stop me to ask if I was ok, --did I break my shoes, --was I hurt. When I explained that the henna was still wet because we didn’t have time to let it dry (because my friend needed to keep walking for her health), they laughed and wished me a happy new year and I laughed and wished them a happy new year too (Happy New Year or more literally “And the same next year” is the greetings that you use around the time of Tabaski or Ramadan and this was close to Tabaski).
You never know when God will redirect your path and what will come of it when He does. Please pray for these women that I am trying to connect with in my neighbourhood, that God would be using these moments and others like them to reveal Himself to them. And pray for me that I would continue to make myself available for whatever diversions that He would have me go on.
Susan is improving with the treatments that she is on and will be house sitting for us while we are gone. I will tell you about another God moment with her and in Ghana next week while we are in Canada (I was going to put it here, but thing this is getting a bit long) and then we might let our blog lapse for two weeks while we are on holidays—unless some interesting things happen in Canada. For those of you in Ontario, we will be having an open house in the fireside room at Grapeview FM Church in St. Catharines on Sunday December 27th from 2-4 pm and would love to see you there!