Last month we had Manistry (all the dudes together) month in Swaziland, except the women… they did no “manistry” to speak of, but were still in Swaziland.  I know you’re glad you had that explained to you.

Our ministry mainly involved helping out with the children of an orphanage and school, working in the fields, and helping around our contact Charmain's home.  Between all that, our random guy things, and, of course, tea time... I managed to meet a lady name Angela... "allegedly." 
…

Cows often found their way onto the property at El Shaddai, and one of our daily tasks quickly became herding them from the corn fields.  On one such occasion, "Angela" was walking down the road and her phone messed up, which led her to call for the assistance of Ben Mullett and Johnfrank.  (They can give more of the story, but if you don’t know them this will have to suffice).

She asked for help fixing the music on her phone and moved on, offering to sell them a giant bag of weed.  Just a normal day, ya know?  Ehhh… not really...

She explained that she was nervous, as it was her first time selling.  She'd been out of work for some time, and was only selling in an effort to raise the money to provide for her little boy.  Afterall, everyone around there sold.  It's how to get by.  But after a talk and some prayer, she agreed to go home and pour all of the weed down her outhouse.
AND she said she'd go to church on Sunday.
 
(NORMALLY I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE PUT A PICTURE HERE, BUT… I DON’T REALLY HAVE ONE RIGHT NOW, SO I THOUGHT ALL CAPS WOULD SIMULATE IT.  JUST IMAGINE 1,000 WORDS HERE).

Sunday rolled around, and there she came.  

I didn't know her, but I saw her talking with Ben and Johnfrank.  Apparently, she told Johnfrank that she’d not thrown the weed away, but I didn’t know that.  His conversation with her was interrupted and he ended up having to step away.  But as “Angela” was getting ready to leave, I heard her saying she was going to meet someone.

I knew the story of her talk on day one with Johnfrank and Ben, but something didn’t sit easy in me.  I just couldn’t shake that thought that maybe she had lied to them and was off to sell the green to someone.  Part of me just wanted to let her go, thinking I was wrong or that she wouldn’t tell me if that’s what she was doing, but saying something won out.

I called to her as she was walking away, with some vague question more out of starting conversation rather than of any specific desire to know whatever specifically I asked.  

She stopped, and I asked her if she had to go.  It didn’t take long for her to explain that she was going to sell, and that this was her only time. 

Johnfrank then returned, and after a bit of conversation she agreed to escort us, along with her young boy, to their home to see her thru canceling her appointment and dumping “the goods” down the chute of the modest wooden outhouse on her grandmother’s property.
 
(I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE PUT A PICTURE HERE TOO).
 
Eventually, we talked her into speaking with Charmain about her problem paying for her son’s school and looking for work.  And she had a solution that would have been available to her all along.  But as many of us do, “Angela” (who’d actually given us a fake English name) was caught in a spinning cycle of chasing her own way around things.  She, like many of us, was trying to solve things by her own strength, maybe even praying to God, but in all practicality trusting in everything but Him. 

I can’t say with great confidence that, as I sit, “Angela” is full-heartedly chasing after the Lord and genuinely seeking what is right.  That’s part of the nature of this building relationships and leaving thing, but we just have to trust that the words of the Lord will not return void.  Since we left her and her son to move on to South Africa, we’ve not heard from them.  So, I don’t know if she’s still sticking with the plan to help her that had been worked out prior to our departure.  I don’t know that she’s seeking a life of honesty and seeking the discipleship we encouraged her to get, but she’s certainly had every chance to do so.  And so have all of us.  Whether we believe and take advantage of those opportunities is, as with Pretend Angela, up to us…

All of this poses some questions and whatnot, and I don’t like leaving things incomplete, but I’m assuming you don’t wanna read a 2,000 word blog in one sitting.  So …for now… against my normal urges not to write something I don’t fully like…I’ll leave it at this, and soon I’ll post the follow up… 

“Lord Willin’”