May the God who has loved you with an everlasting love, heal your pain.

Well, I don’t mean to insult scientists — God bless them! But I just know what I have seen…here’s what is funny about that: the sceintists say that green mambas don’t chase and aren’t that fast. But we had black mambas too, which scientists say are the ones who WILL chase, etc….In my years in Liberia, I saw every kind of poisionous snake (the only one we had that wasn’t poisonous was python and they are HUGE —John got several of these near our house and all of them were over 10 feet. ) anyway…the point is: we all saw green mambas chase and do all the things scientists say they don’t do. We saw black mamba and we NEVER saw them do that…wierd. This is why we have to have scientific method I guess. But we all knew that black mamba is even more dangerous than green, so us kids would walk WAYYYY around, and maybe this is why they didn’t chase us. I bet Fr. Andrew has his own stories about mamba, snakes and all, and we could go on for hours about them. They are fascinating! (I am not afraid of them and I guess my early exposure to the most deadly ones was good for me.)

Telling stories helps me to remember good things and keeps me from focusing on bad. But I would say that the only thing that helps with the pain is prayer to our Lord.

God bless you Todd ….

Also, the mamba is truly the fastest snake ever. Some scientists say that it is not really true, but those scientists have never lived in Africa and they have not watched one of these snakes actually chase a human being. I watched one chase my friend Michael all the way down the street, and to his house. It even tried to get in under the door. It was a 13 year old “houseboy” that killed it and saved everyone’s life…that boy was John’s grandson, Bibi.

I have to say that this comes from very deep in my heart, and I am so thankful you understood me. It is so hard for me to write my thoughts.

I wrote this story because out of the blue, Sergius-Bob mentioned that his priest was the son of a former Luthern missionary who lived in Liberia. It turns out, we KNEW EACH OTHER. We played together as kids….Bob, when I heard back from you, the memories just started coming one after another and I had to write this down. So this story is for you, and for your priest, Fr. Andrew.

These memories are very difficult for me — they are painful and they are tied to many things that I can never write or talk about….but they are precious gifts God gave me as consolation for other things.

Bok, bok, to Juvenaly, Todd, Sergius and Fr. Andrew….thank you for letting me in to your hearts.

Love,
C.

I’m praying for you again today and also thanking God for you…
We are all so blessed to have you in our lives. Accept that and believe that you are that special. We are richer because we have our Columbina!

May God bless you and hear all our prayers for you!