Birthday Stories

For my birthday party, I asked my family and guests to tell stories about me instead of bringing presents.  On the pain of forfeiting cake, they all complied!  For these entertaining snapshots of me through African eyes, read on.

Stephanie recounted the weekend of electrical installation work that filled our home with dust.  I hadn’t wanted her assistance cleaning my room afterwards, preferring privacy in my space; but when the job became overwhelming, after a prayer walk to refresh my mind, I called her in to help after all.  Similarly, Boniface reenacted the night he was startled to find me wailing in my room over a cultural issue I was struggling to stomach.

Matthew told of my unwarranted irritation over his loaning my head lamp to Blaine instead of returning it directly to me one night when we were without electricity.  Leah spoke of my bringing along a wooden spoon in the car as motivation for Blaine to obey me after being disciplined for refusing to sit in his assigned seat as we left for church one morning.  Blaine himself related my garbled mixture of English and the local language in blurting out to admirers in the market that I am their sister, not their wife.

Darcy explained how I have increased the household’s awareness of hygiene, including sanitary food preparation practices, mimicking my cry of alarm on one day when Leah scooped flour from its sack with unwashed hands.  On a subsequent occasion, Darcy herself let out just such a gasp as her mother started to wash her hands in the purified water Darcy had set aside for rinsing salad ingredients after they’d soaked in bleach water.  Witnessing the scene, I’d laughed, saying, “Now you’re becoming like me!”

Jessiel reminisced of his first conversation with me, at our pastors’ conference three years ago, in which I’d refused to give him my phone number.  He later learned that it was only because of the many onlookers whom I didn’t want to have that information.  Happily for both of us, we later exchanged contact information and continued our friendship.

Jeremias shared about one of our many texting conversations.  After his smartphone had been stolen, I’d offered to loan him a basic Android phone on three conditions:  post a Bible verse daily on a WhatsApp group for that purpose; avoid online content not pleasing to the Lord; and — much to his chagrin — don’t try to force the phone to accept a SIM card from a provider other than the one for which it was locked.  He accepted the conditions and borrowed the phone.  After a week of higher-priced internet than his preferred mobile network offers, he appealed to me to annul that third condition.  My response was to quote him the phone’s price, inviting him to purchase it from me and then freely adjust its configurations to his liking.

My birthday celebration also included a play about me performed by a professional drama group, which left us all in stitches with laughter.  According to local tradition, I ceremoniously cut the beautiful cake Stephanie had decorated, in the picturesquely purple scene the family had created in our living room.  And Boniface exhorted me from Philippians 4 to “rejoice in the Lord always” through the Holy Spirit, despite the difficulties of life.  Please pray that I would consistently obey this admonition.