Perpetual

My day didn't exactly go as I had planned but I am quite thankful how it worked out. For the past 2 weeks I was planning on finishing washing all the towels and sheets from the house that our team had used. The original plan I had was to do one or two sets a day, the machine is very small and there was no rush. Just a few days into this plan, the President of the school requested that the house be used for a visitor/friend of his. The thought was that it would just be for a few days but the man and his driver stayed all week long and just left today. The staff house is to be occupied by 4 teachers tomorrow - they will be staying for 2 months. Once the man moved in I no longer had a key, and today I discovered that I still had a load of wet laundry in the washer (from over a week ago - uugh!). This morning I ran down to see about making the beds and washing linens, only to realize there was no electricity. We do not have a washing machine at our new place so Ellie and I had done a few "loads" by hand and I am not very fast at it. There was a woman named Perpetual who was cleaning. I asked her if she knew anyone who would be available to help me hand wash the laundry. She offered to help me and I must say it was very humbling. This woman is so strong and makes it look so easy. I started washing something and she laughed saying "Is that how you do it?" We got through the laundry and I did learn a thing or two - mostly that I am pretty weak. While working together I asked her if she was from Ndu, to which she replied "no." Then I asked how she came to be here. It was a long story about how God brought her to this Seminary to prepare to be a minister. I stopped working all together at one point because I couldn't even see what I was doing from the tears in my eyes. When her youngest child was just 4 months old (she has 3 children), her family had moved into a new home. Earlier her husband's brother had gotten into trouble and ended up in prison. The brother was responsible for him and had to pay bail. The brother again got into trouble and wanted them to post bail again. This time Perpetual's husband said "No, we will pray for him instead". The brother then got a gang to storm into their house and try to kill them. At 2am men came charging into their home with machetes and started slashing her husband. Perpetual said she could do nothing, they had no idea who these men were or what they wanted. Suddenly, she felt a power from within and started saying the name of Jesus and went towards the men and her husband. She layed her body over her husband's and was slashed (she showed me her scar across her thigh and it was over a foot long). Somehow, the 2 of them started fleeing for their lives with the gang behind them. Her husband fell into the ditch and she had to go back and find him. The whole time she believed that they would live, because that would give glory to the name of Jesus. They made it to the neighbors house and after much pounding the neighbors let them in. They got to the hospital and were in for over a month, the husband had been slashed 18 times - over his torso, head, neck, and his arm was severely broken. While in the hospital, the man who was the head of the gang called to see if it were true that they were still alive. The brother had contacted him again to kill this couple but the gang member refused. He came to visit this couple in the hospital to see for himself the miracle that they were still alive. He said that God must be real if they could live through that, because he knows that there is no way the man that he slashed and stab could be alive. I was impressed by this woman's strong hands and after hearing her story I was impressed by her strong faith. This horrific event in her life was the catalyst for her to commit to full time ministry and that is why she is at CBTS to get her training that she needs to be a minister.