The Good:
A couple of weeks ago, ZESCO, the local power company, came and put up some new electricity poles on our street and in the process of doing that, they totally sheared a tree on the corner. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that there are a couple of ladies who have a tomato stand on that corner. We have exchanged waves and pleasentries over the past year. I felt so bad for her that she lost all her shade and rain cover in one day. So, I was talking to Daka (the one who is going to construction school in the mornings) and asked if it was possible to give her some shade and coverage back. Well, he went down and analyzed the situation, and came back excited. I gave him a little money, 100,000 kwacha ($20) to buy the wood, cover material and plastic to cover the top of the roof and transport to get the materials here and he went to town, literally. He came back with all the materials and started work the next day.
The Hard

The Ugly
Mwape is our day guard. He is the nicest guy in the world, the hardest worker and an amazing gentlemen. (Again, he deserves his own post which I will do later.) Well, he came to work last Friday, and began to share about what happened the day before. He lives on a plot of land that he rents from a landlord. The property is pretty big, maybe a half an acre (his house is very small and doesn't have electricity). The last three years he has farmed the land for maize, pumkin leaves and other vegetables to help sustain and suplement his family of six. Well, the beginning of the year, he again asked permission to farm the land and the landlord said yes. So, he spent around $100 dollars and spent a month and half tilling and farming the land. I drove by one day and it was beautiful. So a few months ago, the landlord told Mwape that he wanted to clear the land by April, which was no problem, because it would be ready to harvest in April. Well, this past Thursday, March 12, the landlord came in an slashed the entire field of corn, pumpkin leaves and much more (I don't think this picture taken on my phone does the damage justice, but hopefully you get an idea of how big the plot was.)


Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. As a Christian, I tried to help him see God's hand in this and how God can turn bad into good and the verse from Romans should be an encouragement to him. On the way out, he wanted the verse again. So, I went in and printed it out and gave it to him. I thought he wanted it for himself, but, as he was leaving he said he was going to leave it on the door for the landlord. I thought that was pretty good.
So, our hearts are heavy and we would love your prayers for our friends during these difficult times.
1 comment:
Thank you Steve for sharing so much about your workers because we now know them too! It is so cool to know where the "tomato ladies" sell etc. That is terrible what happened to Mwape. I'm so glad you are there to love them as Jesus would do. He is well pleased.
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