MORNING THOUGHT 5 Friday January 7th
2011
Good morning.
We have recently come back from Mustard Seed Jersey’s Christmas trip to Romania
and I want to share some more of our experiences with you this morning. Today I
want to share with you about my own personal most memorable visit of the trip.
As soon as I
saw Maria’s name on the shoebox I knew who we were going to visit. Maria is
sponsored through Mustard Seed Jersey’s Adopt a Granny programme. I knew who
her Jersey sponsor was as Maria has been sponsored by the same person in Jersey
for several years. Going with the social worker Nelu
we got to the apartment, he knocked on the window and eventually it opened and
the key came out, as Maria is too crippled to walk to the front door anymore
but she can get out of her chair and hobble to the window.
To my surprise
she was quite overcome to see me and kept kissing me and squeezing my hand
obviously very moved. Nelu explained that she said
she had been praying that morning and had prayed for me and visualised me with
a box in my hands. Then I had arrived with a box just a few hours later.
We gave her the
shoebox her sponsor had packed and when she saw the three pairs of cosy socks
she was very moved and thankful as socks was what she
needed. The other items were very good, especially the hot water bottle, but
the socks were urgently needed. I was able to tell her that her sponsor in
Jersey is also a woman of prayer and had packed the box prayerfully so I had no
doubt God guided her to pack those precious socks, which were just what was
needed.
We spent a fair
bit of time with Maria, mostly holding her hand, while we chatted with Nelu translating. She told us about her early life, which
was quite shocking – how she was an orphan with a
horrible start to life as she was the only survivor from a terrible accident,
but she has not allowed this to affect her. She told us how through her life
her faith in God has sustained and strengthened her. Her days now are spent in
prayer. I was really quite moved and humbled to think that having not seen me
for 12 months this dear old soul is still faithfully praying for me. She
promised to continue to pray for us as long as she lives.
Then Maria said
to me that she believes I will not see her again as she feels her life is
drawing to its end. She is approaching 90 and is sure that this will be her
last Christmas on earth. She said she has no fear of death. We left her
agreeing that if we do not meet on earth again then we will meet in heaven.
We left her
feeling very uplifted. I am sure she is right that her life is drawing to an
end but she faces death without fear confident in God in whom she trusts. The
other thing that really struck me about Maria was her lack of complaining –
stuck in a room 24/7 and unable to move more than shuffle a few steps, reliant
on others to help her, yet very positive that she has a God-given purpose in
life to spend her time in prayer for others. This side of heaven we will
probably never know what is accomplished through prayer.
And on that
note I will end these morning thoughts – prayer is important, prayer changes things.