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While in Uganda we had many different women from all over Uganda that helped me in the home. This was a necessary help for it took all day just to live in Uganda. Actually, we had one precious lady from Kenya named Gerretti that helped me inside. I don’t even know how I receive her name, but I called her and we met at Ozzies’ Café on the street front on a typical dry afternoon. She had a quite reserved spirit that was very different from the other ladies I had known thus far. When I first met her, I was so curious of her character. She had worked with the Church of Christ for many years and her husband Grace still did. Gerretti had a baby boy not to much younger than Gabriel named Emma, as well as two school aged daughters and many orphaned children that Grace and her had taken into their home to raise. David and I were challenged here, for as missionaries we teach people around us with every move we make. We did not move to Africa to take a mother away from her family; we came to lead the families in an example of restoration and healing through Jesus Christ. I must pray and think through hiring a mother with a young child, but the thought was obvious that even if I did not hire her she would go elsewhere and I would not be there to minister to her and help her make time for her family. At the end of our conversation that warm day, we agreed that she would come over one afternoon to help me with a meal that week as a trial.
The afternoon came for Gerretti to help me in the kitchen. She helped me prepare a yummy veggie meal with eggplant, zucchini, and carrots along with a few other dishes from the local people. Two of our guest were men we now work with at World Orphans. The night went well with Geretti and we worked through the questions. She was able to answer my questions straight forward, which I cherished and in good English. The decision David and I made was to hire Gerretti and invite her to bring little Emma to work with her.
The girls helped me set up a little area for Emma next to the kitchen where Gerretti would spend most of her time. The Pack-N-Play crib was set up there for him to sleep in next to Mummy. Our family enjoyed having Gerretti and little Emma about. The girls relished having a sweet little African baby in our home. Gabriel loved playing with him also. There was so much we learned from her. Emma spent much time tied to his mummys’ back “Kenya style”, not “Uganda style”. Our dear new friend took time with the girls to teach them how to strap a baby to there back both ways. All three girls liked the Kenya style best, for it was a stronger hold. After some months, Gerretti found it difficult to get any work completed with Emma, as he was starting to move around now and in want of her attention. We talked again and she wanted to leave the baby at home with her sister (the African way), even though she knew I was comfortable with him at our home. I would prefer to have Gerretti with us at the home with Emma less productive than to have her be separated from him. June was hard for Emma for he had malaria, must have been 6 times. The young baby appeared so weak when Gerretti brought him to visit each week. This saddened us greatly. Gerretti and Grace were responsible parents though: they put him to bed around 7pm under a net and kept him covered in long pajamas and protected him with bug repellent. These were unusual for many national parents. Why was he struggling with malaria so much? One morning Gerretti came with Emma on her back and showed me his arm. He had a nasty burn about the size of a silver dollar.”What happened Gerretti?” I asked. She explained that the day before while Emma was at home with her sister, Emma fell in the fire somehow. Her sister could not tell her how or when; she seemed to know nothing. Gerretti was quite frustrated and hurt. She did not feel she could trust her sisters nor find it a safe place for her son to stay, so she wanted to bring him back with her to work. I confirmed my friend’s feelings and her desire to bring him along with her and the girls swept him away from his mother in adoration. There was such a tension in Gerretti over the next passing days as I watched her struggle to try as she might at her work load and complete little. David and I spoke several times of what to do. Finally, I decided I must talk with her. After work one day, I asked her to stay so that we might talk. I shared my heart and concern for her and the tension I had observed lately. I told her that I loved her and enjoyed her at our home, but that I thought Emma truly needed her right now to be his mummy without the added burden of a job. I asked, “Gerretti, will you talk with Grace about you staying home. I don’t know how ya’ll are financially, but it is completely worth the time invested and sacrifice when you spend those sweet years with your child. Nothing we have or neighbors have can ever replacewatching our little ones grow as we live so closely beside them.” I shared of the sacrifices we had made as a family through the years for me to stay at home and what a blessing it is to each of us. Feelings inside me told me that my suggestion seemed to go against the culture we were working in, yet it was my heart. Our dear friend agreed to talk with her husband. Yea! We had a sweet time of prayer together afterwards and away she walked. The beautiful tropical birds woke us as usual the next morning which started our day. 8 o’clock came and no Gerretti. My mind started racing with the possibilities. “Oh, I offended her,” I thought along with a dozen others. We carried on without her as we were accustomed to doing. “Ring. Ring,” the gate bell sang through the front yard into the school room. It was Gerretti! Anxiously, I went to meet her. This time she asked, “Momma, can we talk?” We sat under the front porch once again. Quickly she shared she had talked with Grace and they agreed that it would be good for her to stay home with Emma. She seemed relieved and full of joy. My enthusiasm for her erupted before her. She knew I was sincerely overjoyed for the decision they had made and the new path they would walk down. That was the last day Gerretti worked for me, yet we remained close friends. We called each other to see how the other was and I saw her in Jinja town from time to time. She was at Talitha’s memorial and we grieved together. Last year she made a trip to the states and called. We had a few minutes to catch up with each other, which I treasured. Sunday, February 1, was like a hundred other mornings: get dressed, dress Josiah, dress Gabriel, check on the girls, talk with David. Then David received a text about my brother’s little girl Charis /Care is/. She had a seizure and was at the hospital. I talked to them before church and again after. Chris was out of the country with no phone coverage. I talked to Heather, Charis’ mommy,after church and heard the pain in her heart. In heavy burden, we returned home. David received, once more, a text, this time from William, our dear previous gardener, “Gerretti and her mother and Emma were going to Kampala when they had a accident in the forest. They all died.” I broke down sobbing. Initially I misunderstood that only Emma and his grandmother were in the accident. “Oh, Gerretti,” I cried. Gerretti has lost Emma! Later that afternoon, in conversation with Hannah, I realized my misunderstanding which led to another point of grief. Hannah was in shock most of the day.” Mommy, I only remember her as our African Nanny. Gerretti, I cannot believe she is gone.” Hannah shared. “That is truly what she was. She cared for ya’ll so much and spent such sweet time with each of you,” I responded. Our family spent much of our day in prayer over the next few days for little Charis, Heather, Chris and their other three children, as well as Grace, Geretti’s husband, their two other daughters, and the numerous other orphans they have taken in. If there is any comfort to be found it is in God and God alone. (William shared with us Sunday about the loss of a young 12 year old in their new children’s home. I pray they grieve through this loss well. Children’s homes in Uganda lose many children. It is hard to see these children die after you have poured your life into them. Many of the children’s workers can grow cold with the loss and become afraid to grow close to the children. I pray this never happens to William and Holly; that they would remain vibrant in their love for the children through their passion to live out of Christ’s indwelling strength.) Sunday hit us hard. We struggled from afar over the sickness of my darling niece Charis and the heartache of Heather and Chris. We grieve the loss of a precious friend that once again we are reminded that Talitha must have greeted and is in the throne room praising our Holy Father with as I write this and you read this. We are burdened for Grace left behind with his sweet children. And we hurt for William and Holly in their loss. This carries my mind to our memory verse for the week: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.” God is sovereign. He is lovingly watching over each one of His created ones, not for the purpose of keeping them “safe”, but rather for bringing them to his loving arms through the shed blood of His Son, which makes us holy. He has a plan that we are included in to glorify His holy Name.
Please remember these precious people in your prayers continually.
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