Let This Not Drag On

What can I say?

This morning Kenneth the builder and his six men came to work on our yard. At 7:30 I received a call from a woman called Esitar. Not understanding anything, I hung up. The thought flicked through my mind that Kingsley, our former gardener/thief, was married to a woman with that name.

Later in the morning, who calls me but Kingsley! The connection was bad, so again I hung up. Why did I need to talk to him anyway?

Kenneth and his men overheard my conversation and he approached me. The men stood solemnly nearby. "Madam, I don't think you should let Kingsley come back to this house. He might bring black magic with him." I could tell they were serious.

Half an hour later, the triplets with their mom and grandma visited while returning from their two month check up. They are so precious and doing well, each one displaying his or her own personaliy. We got to hold them for the first time! Jedidiah held the tiny girl. Such innocence in one tiny bundle of chitenge fabric!

Our wonder was disturbed by someone approaching. Kingsley. Kenneth and his men stopped working to listen.

"You called my wife and told her that you wanted me here," he said.

"No, I didn't, Kingsley. She called me at 7:30 this morning." 

Coldly he replied, "Regarding what happened before, Madam, I forgive you."  

Steadily holding his gaze, I returned, "and I forgive you." 

He blinked, said the proper salutations, and left.

Kenneth and his men slowly resumed their work.

I thought about that exchange for a while, then went out to Kenneth and his men. I gave them a brief talk about our Creator God being much stronger than the devil, and that they don't need to be afraid while they are with God and while at our house. I don't know how Kenneth translated it all (one can never be too sure with him), but I hoped they heard something positive.

We ate lunch and put Abigail for a nap. After her nap, we wanted to go outside. But where were Abigail's shoes? She has three pairs of shoes--well, she had three pairs of shoes until Friday when we were gone to Satemwa Tea Estate for high tea. On Friday one of her Crocs disappeared, so now she has one pair of day shoes and one pair of church shoes that fit her. In the space of thirty minutes I turned this house upside down looking for them, including walking entirely around the outside of the house.

Back to Kenneth I went, determined that no one was leaving this house until those shoes were found.

"Kenneth, I need help. Abigail has three pairs of shoes. On Friday one of these disappeared," I held up a Croc, "and now the shoes that she was wearing today are gone. I need your guys to stop digging and look for those shoes now. I'll continue looking in the house." After some coaxing, they began searching. 

Back inside, I prayed. "Dear God, please be glorified in this. Didn't I just talk to them about trusting You? Please open my eyes to where Abigail's shoes are in the house, or else help those men to return her shoes. Please answer my prayer now, Lord, and let this not drag on. Thank You."

And guess what? Kenneth and three guys came around the house carrying Abi's shoes. He said that they were somewhere in the yard that she has not even played in today. My husband was frustrated, but I was glad. "God answered our prayer! We cannot make them stop stealing, but we have Abi's shoes back, and that's what we need. I'm grateful!" And truly, it did feel like success.

Thief

My body trembles, my heart pounds. Adrenaline still races through my body.

Tonight was a delightful Sabbath. Friends came over to play guitars, sing, and eat with us, and we enjoyed sweet fellowship. After dark we prayed together and went to our separate homes.

Then...well, wait. First I must tell you what happened yesterday.

Yesterday, I did something atypical. I reached out for support on FB and asked for prayer. Heaven heard about us yesterday and today in earnest.

Last night, I could not sleep. I cannot make it well past 9 p.m., but I was keyed up and didn't know why. After 11, I heard someone grab our doorknob and try to wrestle it open. The lights were on in the house and the curtains open. What if we hadn't locked it by that time?

Yesterday, the builder for our brick wall came to our house. At 2:45 he asked if he could help me in the house with a project while his men removed dirt where we need to build the wall. “Sure, Kenneth. Do you have time to fill the holes in the washroom? It opens to the outside.” He said that he had time to begin, pulled in an assistant and went to work. The concrete made a big mess, and he moved most of our stuff to the attached garage, which connects to the house through the washroom. When he was finished he pulled everything back into the washroom, except one thing. He left the bin of cat food in the garage, but I didn't know that...

until this morning. After church I went to feed the cat, and I couldn't find his food. “Oh, Kenneth must have moved it to the garage,” I thought, but then became distracted by something else before feeding Grady. I always feed him in the morning, but for some reason didn't today.

Tonight after everyone left, Jamie and I were getting ready for bed. He picked up Grady the cat and took him to the washroom where he sleeps. I told him that he needed to feed him. “Where's the food?” he asked. “It must be in the garage,” I replied.

Jamie went into the garage, using his phone torch. He usually walks in the dark but heard a sound. He quickly returned. “Call Marty right NOW!” he whisper-yelled. I tried to call Marty but couldn't get through, so I called Sharlene. She sent her husband with some big friends down, and by then I had reached Marty and he came with Alex. “Someone is breaking into our house. He's in our garage right now!”

Trembling with fear, I waited in the room with my sleeping children.

The guy hid behind some boxes, so no one saw him. Jamie said, “He's there! I was within one foot of him!” The men tackled him, laid him on the dirt and taped his legs together and his arms behind his back. The business manager and his guys took the thief to the police. He was wearing Jamie's old work jeans over his pants. It will be a bad night for him at the police station.

Now there are three guards with machetes patrolling my yard.

We have many unanswered questions about the thief, but also some others.

Why did Kenneth leave the cat food in the garage? Why didn't I feed Grady this morning? Why didn't Jamie turn on the overhead garage light as he often does? Why didn't the guy hit him when Jamie was right behind him? Why did it happen tonight when Ryan and Sharlene had several big man friends who speak the local language over?

I believe it's this: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.

The Daze of Our Lives

It's 10:45 p.m. “Hey sweetie, a patient has a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and is in shock. I'm going to do surgery with Ryan. Don't wait up for me.” I won't, and I'm so glad we have a puppy.

Saturday morning we awoke to see an empty porch. What? Our porch furniture is all gone! And to add insult to injury, they took our perfectly ripe stalk of bananas! A rude awakening indeed.

Two weeks ago Jamie said, “Hmm, I thought we had $700 more than we have. Where did it go? Am I going crazy?” We calculated it and realized that the money was gone. We still had some doubts, though, which influenced what we did next.

We decided to go to the lake on Monday. Late Sunday night before we left, Jamie counted the money and wrote down the amount. We bid our gardener farewell Monday morning and told him that we would return Thursday. I saw a light turn on in his eyes. As we left we prayed that God would reveal to us if he was the thief.

The lake was windy and restful. It was so nice to get away. All was normal until four hours from home, Jamie saw some sheep. “I'm going to find the owner of those sheep!” We waited for one and a half hours, and finally a deal was reached. Our car was completely stuffed with stuff, besides two adults, two children, one dog, and now one ewe with two lambs. The sheep stunk! Every time the ewe needed to defecate, she kicked up a storm in the back floorboard under our son, who yelled, “It stinks! It stinks!” I remained speechless for a long time then looked at my smirking husband. I began to think that maybe he is going crazy. “This is not normal, you know,” I informed him. “You're going insane, and you're going make me insane. I need to take you home while there still may be a chance to rehab you to normalcy.” He said it was fun.

Immediately upon returning home, I put the children in a warm bath, unlocked the cabinet, retrieved the money bag, and sat on the toilet seat lid to count it.

“Jamie, didn't you say that one envelope had $2000 in it? I don't see anything like that here. Will you look at it? Maybe I missed something.”

“No, Shallena, it's gone. $1800 is missing.”

“Then it had to be the gardener. He is the only one with a key,” I responded.

We talked to the CEO of the hospital, who spoke sternly to the gardener the next morning. He completely denied anything.

Right after they left my house, Jamie called me. “I went to measure a patient. It took five minutes and when I returned, by computer was not in my office.” Are you kidding? This is unreal.

After talking with the police about the computer, they told him to return on Monday regarding our stolen money.

The next morning we were late for church, so I decided to drive down the hill. We ran around looking for the children's classes but couldn't find them. We hopped back in the car and began to drive. Suddenly the hazard lights began flashing and I heard a gurgling, boiling sound. The heat gauge started to rise. “Get out, Jedidiah! Hop out!” I slammed on the brakes, grabbed Abigail, opened the door for Jedidiah and habitually locked the truck. We ran into the hospital to find Jamie. While walking back to the truck, we heard the alarm blaring. Someone must have tried to open the door. Jamie drove it down the hill and back up and said it was fine. Okay, no it's not, but this all is starting to get to me.

That evening we took our little farm to the backyard: sheep, chicks, dog, cat, and people. It was cute. As sundown approached, we took the sheep to the front yard and put two big rocks on the rope tied around the ewe's neck. It took us about five minutes to round up the chicks in the backyard. Upon approaching the front yard with my box of chicks,--oh! Where are my sheep? This is unbelievable! “Our sheep are gone! Someone stole our sheep!” I shouted repeatedly. After about five more minutes, an American man and wife drive up. She was walking beside the truck leading our sheep. “They were about a kilometer down the road, but we heard that you bought sheep so figured they must be yours.” We thanked them and God, and I laughed about my overreaction.

They next morning, I stood on the doorstep with my little girl, when suddenly she started gagging and drooling. She looked at me with pain in her eyes and kept rubbing her tongue. I took her in the house and was going to give her charcoal because I thought she swallowed something. Watching her gag some more, it seemed better to not have her swallow anything and I flipped her over and pounded her back a couple of times. “Don't spank me,” she deplored. She obviously wasn't choking since she spoke to me, but her face was funny colored, she was in obvious pain and she was drooling a lot. So I did what any wife of a doctor would do, I raced to the hospital, horn blaring.

We jumped out—a little girl wearing an overfilled diaper and a shirt and me in my pjs and house slippers, little boy following behind. “What's wrong?” A lady at the steps asked. “I don't know!” I yelled. “Jamie, Jamie!” “He's in the main ward,” she said.

Jamie took Abigail to the OR and laid her on the exam table. Fearful tears ran down her little cheeks while Daddy and a medicial assistant looked in her mouth. Her tiny voice said, “My tongue hurts.” Suddenly I saw something small and orange in her fist. “What's in your hand?” I asked as I pried open her fingers. “Oh!!” we said in unison and laughed, relieved. She clutched tightly four spicy birds-eye peppers. We went home and gave her some ice.

That was yesterday, today is Monday. It's a strange feeling to have no employees working outside, but I really can't dwell on it. It's time to put out the sheep and feed the chicks.