Yarrindi

I had known John for some years.  I knew him first as a teenager, now he was a young man and currently worked as a guard on a building site.  Living and sleeping there, he made sure no-one just walked off with construction material, or set up house there in absence of anyone else.  John had some severe difficulties with his legs, and struggled to find work.  When he was younger and was one of the teenagers I worked with, I went with him several times to a special clinic to get braces and shoes to help him.  He really wanted work and was happy to have this work on the site.  We also give him odd jobs to do and enjoyed him visiting us most days for a meal.  Later he lived by our house, and was more part of our family. Coming to our house late one evening, he is extremely upset.   Having argued with the site engineer, he doesn't want to go back. John is sick with a bad cold and chesty cough, his head hurts, he has chills, he doesn't have a blanket.   I go to the pharmacy

Sometimes we (the single women living together in the 'girls house') borrowed a friend's car.  It was older and occasionally had problems starting, but once it got going worked well. One morning we were on our way to school.  Just after we got onto the main road the car suddenly stopped.  I couldn't re-start it. We prayed for it.  We tried everything we could think of.  I assumed it had run out of gas.  The fuel gauge was a bit tempermental so it was kind of a guessing game as to how full the tank might be.  The thought of figuring out how to get diesel from a gas station and get it in the car was not appealing.  I put the key in one last time....and this time the car started immediately.  We had been stopped about 10 minutes. Less than five minutes down the road the traffic was at a standstill, there had been a serious car accident.  As we drove past we realised it had just happened. Our delay had meant we missed it. Nothing is a surprise to God.  I was thankful.