Stories for Saturday

My alarm went off at 8:00 am this morning and I thought to myself; maybe I will just shut it off and go back to bed. Then it dawned on me why my alarm was making that annoying beep beep beep sound. It's Saturday and I am headed to see my little angles at Frances Gaskin. Once I remembered that, I did not think twice about ignoring the alarm and going back to sleep.

Today I decided I would take a few pictures of my friends and family to show the kids. They LOVED it! After the bible lesson and color time, I whipped out 4 photographs. One of my family, one of my friends, one of my brother and I, and one of Austin Thomas Looker and I. The photos were an immediate hit. After a brief explanation of who was who I was bombarded with questions far beyond what I imagined. They examined and sized up these 4 photos in great detail. I found it so cute. They wanted to know everything. I will restate a few of the comments for you.

Comments on the Family photo: A picture of myself, my brother, and my mom and dad on my dads 50th Birthday in January.

"Oh is that you Pa. He is 50 in age"

"Your Pa has small hair" ---- translation Your dad is BALD :) haha

"Your brother and you resemble"—translation you and your brother look alike

"Is that your sister".... no it’s my MOM!!!! Hahaha "Oh your ma look young"

"You look like your ma and your brother look like your pa"

"Who make that cake" I made the cake "Oh alright did you eat it" "It looks fine"

Comments on the friend’s photo: Picture of Nate and Kristen Brewer, Alaina, Sarah, Tom, and myself at my house before I left.

"Who are these people...they your brothers and your sisters". No they are my friends

"Oh.....they fine"

"He your boyfriend...pointing to Tom".. No that is my friend "Oh he fine"

"Oh she is pretty".. pointing to Sarah "very pretty"

"Is that your house" "Yes Oh it looks very fine"

"you bring them to see us some day"

Picture of Austin and I at a Cardinals game

"Who that, that your child"- that's my friend... they all laughed. "Your friend small"

"Who is that"-pointing to all the people in the background at the game

"Where you at, in America?" -Yes I am at a baseball game do you know what baseball is? NO! It's a game where you use a bat and hit a ball....OHHHH we know that...That's nice"

"Look at all these white people"-- white white white- as they pointed to crowds of people in the background.

And then comments on the picture of my brother and I

"Is that your brother? He FINE!!! Very Fine"

“You two resemble"

After we talked about the photos they asked me can we keep these. I said sure you can keep them. Then one of the kids ran inside and came back outside with a really old looking photo album. They sat down and took out photos that were currently occupying the album and replaced them with my photos.

Soooo Mom, Dad, Nate, Austin, Sarah, Alaina, Kristen, Nate and Thomas your faces will forever be left in Africa at the Frances Gaskin Rescue home for Abandon Children.

Consider yourself LUCKY!!!!!!!!

Next Saturday the kids are making the journey to visit us on the ship. They are excited, and, I am very excited! A few of the kids asked me if they could see where I rest…aka sleep, I told them sure I will have to make sure and clean my room and make my bed. :)


Oh and one last thing. On our ride home we can upon and accident. An elderly man had been hit. We saw the man lying on the pavement with blood gushing out of his head. Praise God, we had 3 nurses in our car. The 3 nurses, a male crew member, and myself jumped out of the car and ran over to the man. The nurses did nurse things,and myself and the Stephen did crowd control.

The scene was complete chaos, people running and screaming and crying. Bystanders gathering around to look and SNAP PHOTOS! Can you believe that…? I saw one lady who had a camera and was down in the victims face taking photos.... I told her to back up. People asking is he alive, does he have a pulse. The nurses used a lapa (material they use to make clothes here) to control the bleeding and a truck passing by offered to take the man to the hospital. So we loaded the man into the back of the truck and off the truck went…. Speeding to the hospital.

We got back in our Land Rover, said a prayer and headed back to the ship. Pray for this man and his family, we have no idea what happened and we have no idea how he is doing, but we do know God provided this man with a few nurses who knew how to take charge and how to react in a crisis. Thank God!

Just another Saturday of stories of my time here in Africa.