A Nighttime Visitor

Our kids enjoying the shore

We’re not usually up that late. Usually we lock up our front gate and head toward bed by 10pm, but we had decided to watch a movie and it was longer than we had thought. So there it was after 11pm, we were finishing a movie in our living room when we heard a little knock and a “hodi” at our screen door.

Instinctively we paused the movie and welcomed the visitor in. (Who would be visiting us at this time of night?) It was Nana and she was carrying a container of food for us. Tom took the container from her and carried it back into the kitchen and she sat down. It was so quiet and dark outside that it didn’t seem right to turn on all our lights so we sat in the shadows, while Nana poured out her heart.

“I suffer,” she repeated many times. Nana has been a visitor to our house many times since we arrived. She came initially looking for work, but we had already found someone to help with housework so we had asked her to make us mataba (a traditional island dish) every week instead. Nana likes to lament about the situation on the islands-- the lack of work, the lack of money, the lack of men that actually do anything (her husband left her). But this night was different, there was a desperation in her voice and we knew she wasn’t just complaining or trying to get money from us, she was suffering.

Her daughter wants to get married but they don’t have the money to make it happen and Nana’s ex-husband is claiming he can’t help. Nana’s younger son has been kicked out of school for not having paid for several months. Now her brother was put in jail for sleeping with someone he shouldn’t have. We’re not sure if it was assault, consensual or even how old the girl was, but she was part of a big family in the neighborhood who were making sure that he stayed in jail. He left behind an emotionally fragile wife and premature baby (born two months early) on Nana’s hands. Not to mention the burden of having to go to the Dept of Justice and the prison to look after him.

We had heard most of this news before, but it seemed like it was drowning her. Our neighborhood streets had just been filled with celebration-- a wedding in the family of her brother’s accusers. “I didn’t go,” she said. “The shame of them seeing me and talking. I didn’t go. They’ll ask why I didn’t come, but I couldn’t.”

The wedding Nana didn't go to

She turned to us and asked again if she could work in our house, suggesting that perhaps we didn’t like the woman helping us now. Politely we told her that we would think about it, but we are very happy with who is helping us now and I think Nana knew that. But more than that, we were troubled that Nana seemed to be looking to us as her salvation, her only hope.

After she left, I racked my brain for some kind of regular work that we could have her do but mostly I was struck by her need for prayer. I had told her before that we would pray for her and so we did. We asked God to help us know how to help, how to be generous, how to love her. Like many islanders, Nana is quick to think that money is her biggest problem, her biggest need, but we know that isn’t true. We prayed that Nana wouldn’t suffer anymore that she would find hope and salvation in the right place.

I visited Nana this morning and asked her to make us a batch of samosas, but the shadow of her night visit had already lifted, her family had some work washing clothes and as I held the tiny premie baby, she told me, “Her father,” gesturing to the baby, “her father will be home tomorrow or the next day. They discussed it and he’s coming home.”

She had a half-smile on her face. She wasn’t drowning anymore.
“We must thank God,” I told her.
“Yes,” she said and she lifted her hands up to heaven.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had our first English Club and it was a success.  About 20 people came and most of them participated.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and expressed their appreciation for it.  Peter & David were sick this past week but it was a 24 hour bug and they were fine the next day.  Tom was able to have a good discussion with a good friend about heaven and good works.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for Nana, that she would find true hope.  Pray for her family and this tiny baby.  Pray for the many others like Nana who just manage to stay afloat but who are desperate for life, and hope and truth.  Pray that we would be given the right words and right actions to help when we find ourselves in these situations.  Please remember our future teammates as they prepare to join us here in November.