Today, we woke up with plans set for the whole day. There is a saying: “Want to make God laugh? Make plans.” Well, this was our experience today. We had much to do and had many things on which to work; for instance, instead of our Creole class, we needed to work with our teacher on  our First Penance service in Creole. After that, we needed to bake banana bread for a meeting we were having in the afternoon with the Mother Angela Clinic team. Sr. Marilyn needed to drive one of our boys to take an entrance exam for school, and Sr. Inga needed to show one of the girls we are helping earn money for school what to do in  some cleaning.

Then we had a knock at the door. Two of our little guys came because their mother went to the river to wash clothes. We did not want to have them come because we were so busy. But God had other plans for our day! We gave one of the boys some cornflakes, and he went out to play. The youngest boy, Jolandez, who is three years old, seemed sad and was very tired. Right away, he wanted to be picked up, and he fell sound asleep. When he woke up, we noticed he was very warm and his eyes were glassy. We decided to take his temperature. Sure enough, it was high. Thank God, Dr. Wanitha from our clinic team was in the pharmacy. She took a look at him and said he was very sick. Jolandez had an infection in his foot, which he got last week when he accidently stepped on hot charcoals that the family used for cooking. We could not contact  his mother, so we did the best we could with medication, cold compresses, and a safe place for him to sleep.

This was a good lesson for us that anything can happen with a knock at the door. We need to let go of what we think is important and do what is needed. Maybe this is what the ministry of presence is all about.