A gift from the Lord June 9, 2008

The rest of the weekend passed quietly and without further incident (not that we were expecting anything). Everyone who hears the story thinks someone knew I had this money and came exclusively for that (we thought Allison’s phone had been on the table and was taken, but she found it at the office…), so even though it’s creepy in one way, it’s somewhat comforting to think that our place wasn’t being targeted by anyone who had a general intent of housebreaking. I didn’t want to go anywhere or really be left alone at home on Saturday evening, so two of the three Canadian linguistics interns who have been helping Allison and others at SIL came over with some food and we just watched a movie here. I didn’t go to church yesterday, since I was still feeling miserable from my cold, and it was actually nice to catch up on reading and a few small chores I haven’t gotten around to. I purposely didn’t go to Missionary Fellowship, because on Saturday Leah Preston, one of the soon-to-be-ex centre managers at SIL, asked me if I would still want to go to South Africa if I could, if money or getting on a flight were no object. She said they had contacts at LAM who could get me even on a “full” flight if it were necessary, and she would simply mention the matter at the missionary fellowship. I felt a little weird about all this, and once again worried about neglecting work, but I just decided that it was all out of my hands and that if the Lord wanted it to work out, He would. The end of the matter is that members of the missionary community generously contributed, my ticket was purchased this morning and I am flying on Wednesday, coming back next Friday. All I need to figure out is how I’m getting to Pretoria from the airport and then to Vryheid. To me this has been a wonderful instance of having the Lord “act for” me and take circumstances entirely out of my control. I also feel very loved and very much belonging to missionaries here! May I get back refreshed and emotionally ready to carry on with my responsibilities!