I sat
down on the spare bed to write and lay down to sleep! And I did – all afternoon!
This is so unusual for me...
I must
have been tired!
So here
it is, late afternoon. It’s raining
gently outside. Warm rain.
We had a
week of rain forecast this last week. Two miracle clear days…
Tuesday and Wednesday were sunny days – enabling us to prepare the site for
Presiding
Bishop Caussé’s inspection visit on Thursday.
I had my
bunch of car keys in my jeans pocket on Tuesday.
I lost
them – somewhere on the site…
My heart
sunk.
A few
weeks ago a rucksack was stolen out of a car boot on the site.
Passports
and other valuables were stolen.
I had
not much hope of finding my car keys.
Nevertheless,
I told one of the foremen.
And
prepared to find Glenn and come home to get my spare car keys and another key
to the flat.
Glenn
was away from the site, so I paused in alerting him.
A couple
of hours later my car keys were safely returned to me.
One of
the worker I know – Chicken is his name – had found them.
I was
very grateful for another miracle.
I
visited Gateway shopping mall for work on Wednesday –
Gateway
is an enormous mall in Umhlanga.
I go
there as seldom as possible… It’s just
too big, and noisy, for me.
When I
got home I realized I had lost my memory stick containing back-ups
of the site
reports, somewhere.
I
searched the car, the site office, home… and figured out I must have lost it
somewhere
on my
visit to Gateway.
Well – I
had no hope of finding it again.
I was
reconciled to getting another memory stick and redoing what I had done.
On
Thursday 8:01am - from my niece-in-law Roxane Holmes –
She
attached the conversation she had been part of late Wednesday evening:
Wednesday
22:54 – to Roxane
“Hi
Roxane. This is Nhla. Trynna get hold of
Judy. Can you help?”
“Hi. Which Judy?”
“Judy
Bray…”
(His/her name
and phone number attached…)
Its
regarding the usb that I found. Thank
you.”
“Send me
yr details and I will ask her to contact you in the morning.”
Thursday
8:01am (read by me at about 9:45 am) - from Roxane
“Hi
Judy… got a message from someone I don’t know looking to get hold of you…
Says u
lost a memory stick?”
“Yes! A red and black one with a meerkat decorative
tag.
Oh, I so
hope for it to come back to me…”
“The
person’s number is on the message. I hope
you get it back.
Incredible
that the person messaged me to find you.”
“Whew!
yes! I will contact him/her.”
“Let me
know how it goes.”
Thursday
10:07am - Me to Nhla - him/her –
“Good
morning,
I’m very
grateful you found my memory stick.
I was
becoming reconciled to it not coming back.
I’m
greatly relieved to know I might have it again.
I’m also
glad that you found something that identified
someone
I know and made the effort to make contact with me.
I’m very
occupied for the next few hours with meetings I need
to be at on the site.
Is it
possible to meet you later this afternoon or tomorrow please to collect my USB?
Grateful
regards,
Judy
Bray
PS I
will see your reply…I don’t know when today…”
Thursday
1:39pm – From Nhla
“I live
at…
I work
at… Monday to Friday …
I take a
taxi…
Since
you’re currently occupied, I’ll hear from you when you get to me.
Thank
you.”
Thursday
6:53pm – from Roxane
“Hi, did
you get your memory stick back?”
Thursday
7:00pm - to Roxane
“Been
busy with top management all day.
Sent a
message.
Got a reply.
Will
arrange to get tomorrow.”
“That’s
awesome. I was so worried it was a
scam.”
“I will
fetch today from where he/she works – hospital in …”
“Incredible. I’m so happy it’s coming back to you.”
Thursday
7:10pm – to Nhla
“A
moment to pause after a very busy day today!
Phew!
Can I
come to your work and fetch it tomorrow please?
If so,
where shall I find you?”
7:49pm –
from Nhla
“Same
here. Time to chill indeed!
You’ll
find me in the hospital pharmacy.
Just ask
for Nhla.”
Friday
10:27am – to Nhla
“I will
come to the pharmacy around midday, twelve?”
10:53 –
from Nhla
“That’s
fine.”
I got
there at midday not knowing whether I was meeting a man or a woman.
I asked
the young cashier for Nhla.
I thought "Maybe you are Nhla...?"
She
looked at me blankly.
I showed
my phone to her with the name and surname.
Her face cleared.
She
pointed to a young man across the pharmacy serving someone.
I waited
until the two seated people he was helping arose and left.
I
introduced myself and we had a truly lovely conversation.
He had thought when he found the USB that this was a fortunate find!
A memory
stick with lots of music and movies perhaps…
When he
saw the content, he realized this must be very important to whoever lost it.
So he
set about trying to figure out who might have lost it.
He says
it took him three hours to figure something out.
He found
the reports and photos interesting.
He
thought the building was unique.
He saw a
few surnames recurring in the reports.
He
looked them up on social media.
He came
across my facebook profile.
He knew
it was me because I registered as site missionary on the Durban Temple construction.
But no
public information.
He
looked at who might know me, have tagged me.
Roxane
Holmes tagged me sometime in one of her posts.
He looked
at her profile and whom she was connected with.
There he
found I was familially connected with her.
So he
contacted her…
I hugged
him.
I asked
him if I could take a photo of him.
He said
yes.
I gave
him the meerkat tag as a token of this special occasion.
He was thrilled.
I gave
him some money “to do something special with.”
“You
don’t need to…” he said.
“I know
I don’t need to… I want to.” I said.
I was
tearful as I walked to my car shaking my head.
I said a
humble and grateful Thank You prayer.
"Signs follow them that believe..." I believe...
Friday 12:53pm –
to Roxane
“Hi
Roxane, I just fetched my memory stick from Nhla, young, newly graduated
pharmacist.
He found
my memory stick outside Gateway where I dropped it when getting my car keys
out.
He
realized it was very important when he looked at the contents of the Temple
construction on it.
He found
nothing on social media about me, but you had tagged me in one of your
posts. Amazing!
I
believed in miracles before… I’m reassured of miracles this week.
He
didn’t want to alarm you so he gave lots of details about himself.
Really
personable young man.
I’m
really grateful to God and both of you!
I’m so
happy to have it back!”
“Ah this
is wonderful news. I’m so happy for
you.”
Monday morning – very early… The saga continued.
The
miracles didn’t end there…
I sent a
message to my editor on Friday around midday
when I
usually send my weekly report for editing –
“Hi
Helen, I haven’t even started my report yet.
I don’t know
when I will get to it to you.”
On quiet
Friday evening after supper –
the only
evening this week with no visitors for supper!
It’s been a very busy week preparing for Thursday!
(I
thought “The least I can do is feed one or two of those who are working late to
prepare…”)
(We
usually have visitors only one evening during the week…)
Glenn
was busy with his half-monthly technical report.
I
thought I might watch a movie (using earphones) as I sometimes do, when Glenn is
working.
I found
myself in Microsoft Word… and a few inspired hours later my report was largely
complete.
After a good
night’s sleep I was wide awake when it starts getting light at around four thirty am.
I
quietly opened the lounge curtains and said my early morning prayer.
I came
to the spare room, silently closed the door, put on the bedside light and
did my morning
New Testament and Book of Mormon scripture study.
John,
Brenda and Vi were due to come to us this weekend.
I had earlier-baked
banana muffins in the fridge for tea.
I
usually have a choice of two goodies to eat…
I
decided to make brownies as well – that is easy and quick to make.
I
thought “I can do that later…”
I opened
my weekly report number 167 and critically read through it.
A few
minor changes to make…
I thought
“I’ve got time to start putting the collage together… maybe…”
I set to
work.
I kid
you not… I felt so thoroughly inspired as (was it I?) I edited the later batch
of photos –
That usually
takes much longer than creating the collage!
And then
I pieced the collage together. Was it
really I?
I felt
so completely, tinglingly, guided as chose photos and put it together.
I
breathed more thank-you prayers during and afterwards.
I sent my
report and collage off to Helen for editing…
(I read her
reply on Sunday morning “Well done Judy - No changes to be made this week.”)
I made
the brownies, we had John, Brenda and Vi here from 11am until nearly five pm…
Glenn
and I enjoyed a quiet evening together.
Glenn
slept in his recliner chair and I watched a hard-to-watch-in-one-part,
made-for-TV movie.
(I’m
glad for the ability to pulse through some parts - of some really worthwhile movies…)
“Taking Back my Life – The Nancy Ziegenmeyer
Story” was the movie's name.
Sobering…
She was raped in 1990.
(How much
good progress we have made as a society…
As well
as back-sliding in other aspects…)
And now –
It’s a new week.
I slept
a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and was awake at 4:15 this morning.
I got up,
quietly came to the spare room and finished this off.
I’m
grateful to have recorded this fuller account of this last week of miracles…
I shake
my head while marveling again.
And now
6:02am…
Time
for my daily scripture study, to the sound of our two resident Mallard ducks honking down at the fountain in the background...
And then on – into my Marvellous Monday and this New Week.
This may be our last full week here...
Will probably be.
It's been SO GOOD to be here for the last three plus years!
Serving God and our fellow men... what a privilege, what an opportunity.
What a responsibility.
And we'll carry on... serving God and our fellow men, back home again.
