Highlights of Africa - Part IV

On the first day I was asked to share my story with the women’s group. Since there is a shortage of well-trained translators, we had quite a bit of difficulty, but eventually the story was told, and when one women came to the meeting late, a Dinka woman, tall and slender, reserved, sorrowful and slow to move, dressed in yellow and carrying a wooden cross, her friends immediately made room for her to have a seat and many paid attention to her as she walked to her seat.

Although her reserved demeanor was typical for a Dinka, I could not help but notice there was something different about her. She appeared to be numbed, and I was overcome with the memory of how I have walked into rooms without ever feeling a thing.

Then one of her friends stood to speak, and through the translator asked that we pray for this woman in the yellow dress. What the translator was able to tell me was, “She believes God has damaged her three times and she needs your prayers.”

Without anything further from the translator, we moved toward her to pray. I knew in my spirit that she and I had something in common, even if I had no details.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and I prayed that God would reveal to her that whatever bad has happened, that He has not brought about damage to her, but that He grieves with her and loves her deeply; that she is precious to Him and He wants to comfort her. As I continued pleading with God to help me with translation so I could be of service, having a sense of God’s compassion for her, tears streamed down my cheeks, my soul knowing without translation that she and I had much to talk about.

The news spread fast that there was an American woman there who has been through hardship and heartache and was coming to bring a message of Hope, and later that day I was scheduled to speak to the pastors and evangelists.

But before that time came I located the one experienced translator who had been working at the pastor’s conference that morning, the pastor who organized the entire event, and asked him for a private meeting with the lady in the yellow dress and me. Despite being exhausted from a long morning of translating, he happily agreed and we searched out the lady in yellow and found a place to sit and talk.

This is her story: “I feel God has damaged me and I am confused. I want to believe but I do not understand and it is so confusing to me. I don’t want to believe the things of witch doctors and the traditional tribal spiritual beliefs, but I do not understand. We keep our cattle in a barn and the barn was struck by lightning and burned, killing all our cows.”

This was their livelihood, and no, there is no insurance there. Their ‘barns’ are just large mud huts, just a bit bigger than their mud-hut homes.

“Then our daughter was outside playing and lightning struck her and killed her.” And then she told me of strike number three. “Then our other daughter, our only other child, was also struck by lightning, and killed.” I know the confusion and the fear, and how the world is a blur when you can’t make sense of anything. I know the experience of shock and I saw it in her.

Gently, I took her hand and shared my own story with her, and then told her I had been praying for her and that I had a message for her: God loves her, she is His own. Horrible, terrible, heartbreaking things happen and we don’t understand why, but God is here, extending His compassionate Love, and He grieves for us in our pain. I asked her name; I will call her Rebecca.
God is with Rebecca, as He is with me, and wants so much to reach her with compassion and Love. If you are moved to pray for Rebecca, who is deep in shock and grief, please do as the Holy Spirit moves you.