Thanks dad.

My night guard has been the topic of other posts, and once again he has crept up again to touch my heart in some special way.

Inuid Nguruwe is a tall lanky man and is very dark…and I won't lie…his appearance has frightened me a time or two when I come upon him outside in the dark. He has been a faithful, on time, protective employee for me.
Here he is and his sweet smile:



I wrote about HERE where his wife was in the hospital, and he took out a loan from me. He finally finished paying off that loan this month. When I gave him his paycheck yesterday, he said, "Mama, I need to take out another loan. I need a mattress."

You see, when he went on holiday last month, a drunk robber broke in his house and stole his mattress. (mattress in Malawi = a piece of 3in. rectangle foam)

Well, I asked him to find out how much they cost, and he agreed to do that.  While I was in town yesterday, I found a mattress store and went ahead a bought one for him so he could have it on Christmas. It cost about 4,000 Kwatcha. ($26). Remember, he makes about 6,000 kwatcha each month. I left it for him at my house to get on Christmas Eve when he came to work. I left earlier in the day to spend the night with the Laffoons.

Let's fast forward to today. I had a great Christmas Day. I saved a package from my mom full of wonderful things…Starbucks coffee, Bath & Body works items, GRITS!, and cards from my family. The one from my dad particularly touched me and made me cry. He reminisced about things he remembered about me growing up. But then he ended it with this:
"While I would like to hug you this Christmas, I would rather you hug others in HIS NAME. Our day will come."

It got me thinking…was I "hugging" others in His name this day? Was I sharing and showing others Jesus even when I wanted to be home with my family?

After breakfast and presents Christmas morning, the Laffoons and I headed out to spend the afternoon with some good friends. We had lunch and wassail and fudge and fellowship. It was so nice to spend it with friends. These ladies have come to mean so much to me. I had promised my family I would Skype at 4, so I had to leave everyone early and drive back to Mzuzu so I could be on time.

I raced home and only got to Skype for about 20 minutes because they wanted to open presents. I'll admit I was so disappointed. Even if I couldn't be there physically, I just wanted to be a fly on the wall to hear the jokes, see everyone's faces, and share in the joy of Christmas morning. I'll also admit I had a good cry when I hung up. Didn't my family understand the sacrifice I made to Skype with them? Didn't they know I left people I care about so I could call them, and now they were hanging up with me after 20 mins! I cried again, but this time because I felt sorry for myself sitting in my house all alone.

But don't worry, I quickly got over it. I remembered all the things I could be thankful for this Christmas: video skyping at all!, a family to spend Christmas with, friends and food.  I even got to share with the Muslim man across the street that I would be praying for him.

I know, I said this was going to be about my night guard…well, he's coming.

I went back to the Laffoons for dinner and finally headed back to my house. As I came out with my nightly cup of tea for Mr. Nguruwe, I said, "Christmas Muweme!" (Good Christmas!)

Well, immediately, he grabbed the cup of tea, set it down, and just said in his broken English, "Oh mama, it was so nice…I just put it down, and it fit so nice. I slept all day!"

I finally realized he was talking about the mattress. He just hugged me about three times and just keep smiling about how nice it was so have something to sleep on.

And then he said, "How much Mama for my loan?"
I thought about people like Aunt Dola Jean and April and Paula Brooks who have given me extra money…And immediately, what my dad had said came back to me…

"Nothing Adada. Merry Christmas."

He sort of stuttered in disbelief, and then he couldn't stop hugging me. He would hug me so tight, then look at me and say Thank you Mama, Thank you Mama, and then go to hugging me again. I think I counted this sequence happening about 6 times.

But then this is the part that brought tears to my eyes. He said, "Mama, you truly have Yesu Christo in heart." And he pointed to my heart. He just smiled, closed his eyes, and said, "Thank you Yesu. Thank you."

And then I knew I had hugged someone else in Jesus' name today.

Thanks dad for giving up hugs from your daughter so she could hug others halfway across the world.
And thanks for reminding me to do it.