Continuing with our door to door evangelism, we went and met an old lady named Elizabeth. She is a widow and living on her own. She has a very hard life and has to do alot all by herself. She is 80 or 90 years old, she doesn’t really know. There is alot of hard manual labor that she has to do and she doesn’t really have the strength anymore. It was very very hot outside and she was trying to cut some firewood. Josephine saw and being the amazing woman she is, went to help and split the wood for her. She worked at it for a few minutes and used a machete and a rock. It was hard work and beads of sweat appeared on her brow. But finally the wood was cut and now a fire could be made to cook lunch. Elizabeth was so grateful to Josephine and kept thanking her through the rest of our visit.
Elizabeth couldn’t stop looking at us and couldn’t believe that Mzungu’s (white people) would visit her. She really couldn’t take her eyes off us. Speaking of her eyes, hers had faded to blue as her eyesight failed with age. She could only see things close up. We sat on a bamboo mat and I held her hand. While we sat under an orange tree we had a great time talking and laughing with her. She called her people the Coca Cola people because Coke is the same colour as their skin. Speaking of Coke, she hadn’t had one in forever because she doesn’t ever get into town. We decided to bring her one when we came back the next time for follow up. As we got talking more she told us that she wanted to accept Christ into her life. I was the one closest to her and the one she could see the best and Josephine told me that Elizabeth wanted me to be the one to lead her. I felt so honored! So I led her in a prayer and when we were finished, her blue eyes were sparkling. She was so happy and joyful. It was beautiful. We talked for a bit longer and prayed a blessing over her and asked God to heal her. Then she told us how grateful she was that we came to visit her and we promised to return. She waved us off and we headed back to the church. I couldn’t stop smiling and I was so happy! What a lovely day its been! First Andrew and now Elizabeth. The angels in heaven must definitely be having a party!
Two days later, just like we promised, we went to visit Elizabeth again. We arrived at her house after giving our new friend Andrew a Bible. Once again we sat on the bamboo mat. Grant had also joined us for the morning as well. We visited with her and asked how
she’d been. She told us that all day yesterday she had no food to eat and went to bed hungry. That really hit us hard and we were really sad to hear it. We pulled out the glass bottle of Coca Cola that we had told her we’d bring and gave it to her. She was so grateful and drank some of it. She loved it alot. We asked her how she felt since accepting Jesus and she said that the day we prayed for her she felt better and stronger but now not anymore. She also told us of pain in her shoulder. So we laid hands on her and prayed for God to heal her. She wasn’t healed in that moment, but we’re still trusting that God can do it. Once again she just kept staring at us and would shake her head in disbelief that we were coming to visit her. She kept saying how we looked so alike. She thought we were all siblings. She especially thought April and Grant looked so similar that they had to be brother and sister. We just laughed and thought it was funny how convinced she was that we were related. Even after we told her we were from Ohio, Texas and Canada. She’d take our arms, touch our skin and shake her head (she did that alot). Josephine said she was examining our skin colour. She was extra astounded when she touched Grant’s arm because he had hair on it. African’s don’t really have body hair, so this was extra weird for her. April and I couldn’t stop laughing.
We talked more and Elizabeth found out that we were leaving in a few days and was very sad. “Why do you ha
ve to leave?” she asked through Jane’s translation. “You should stay here with me and visit!” We were touched but told her that we’re on a journey. God sent us here and he has somewhere else to send us next so we have to be obedient to that. But we told her we’d always be her mzungu grandchildren and she really liked that.
The next day she was at church! This was a big deal because she isn’t very strong and walks very slowly. I don’t know how she got to church, but I can only imagine how long it would have taken her to get there from her home. We were so happy to see her! She sat on a mat on the floor and clapped her hands during worship and when it was over she came and said goodbye to us.
A day or two later April and Grant went back to visit her. I was going to visit a friend at the hospital so I was unable to come along, but from the sounds of things the visit went great! We had some extra money in our budget this month so we used it to bless some people in the area and the church. Elizabeth was one of those. Like I had mentioned earlier, it didn’t sit well with us that there are days that she goes hungry because she has no one to take care of her. So April and Grant brought her an assortment of food like rice, maize, beans and to top it off, a Coke. She loved it.
Its amazing how taking time to talk with people and hear their stories can make such a difference. When door to door evangelism is like this, it really isn’t so bad at all. In fact, I loved it. There is no need that can’t be met through prayer and taking time to be with people. We absolutely loved spending time with Elizabeth and we’ll never forget her. And now I’ve got an African grandmother in Soroti, Uganda!
