Words cannot really express how life was for us as children in the bush of West Africa. It's best told as single events that happened. Each one of us experienced this incredible time in our lives in personal ways that can only really be told by each one of us. All four of us remember different things... One of my personal memories was a miracle that happened to the four of us one night.
After moving to Monrovia we lived in a house that seemed to be the right place for children to safely be raised. Three bedrooms - I had my own room (closest to the front area of the house) my brothers all stayed in the same little bedroom down the hall, and my parents had their bedroom at the very end of the hall. One night while all were asleep a thief broke into our house and robbed us.
In Liberia thieves commonly take their clothing off and pour oil all over their skin. (so if someone should catch them it would be impossible to hold on to them and they would escape easily) He came into the house and into my bedroom, naked and dripping in smelly oil. He came to my bedside searching for anything of value. He emptied my little special box on the bed right to my head. Oil dripped down on the sheets as he bent over trying to see what he could take. The little 8 year old golden haired girl asleep right there at his mercy. He could have stolen me in the night, the thoughts of what could have happened that night troubling. Yet I was untouched and deeply asleep. I never felt his actions next to me, but the oily sheets were proof of his actions that night.
He then crept down the hallway and entered my brothers room, leaving trails of dirty oil along the floor. Finding nothing and leaving each little boy unharmed he went to the door of our parents room - finding it locked he then went to the living room and proceeded to take everything he could find. Oily marks were all that remained of our precious few belongings. We lost our 'missionary equipment' that night.
Except our precious lives.... he could not touch our precious lives. Thank you God.
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