Face to Face

I woke up Sunday ready to go for a long walk. My alarm went off at 6am as planned. It was raining hard and the water off the metal roof was loud, as if I was inside a steel drum. I decided to stay in bed and rest.

I attended Bethel Church for services. A number of the students attend here and it was good to see some familiar faces. As I sat in the pew waiting for others to arrive, a Liberian woman came and sat next to me. It was young Peter Saye's mother. I had seen her earlier in the week and when she saw me she ran up and gave me a big hug, at that time it had taken me a bit to realize who she was, but now I knew. I was happy to see her there. When the time came to read scripture, I turned to the chapter and verse and scooted close to her so she could share my bible with me. I think she appreciated it.

Peter was sitting a row in front, and I could see that he brought the bible with him that I had given him. Their family now has a bible to share and I was happy about that. Earlier in the week, I had presented it to Peter. The bible I brought for him was one that I had as a child. Maritta wrote a nice note in the front from our family so he can remember where it came from.

After Church I relaxed for bit then decided to head over the work on the internet. It has been very troublesome in both speed and reliability. I had brought a filter with me to help with some of the traffic and needed to finish setting it up. As I headed over to house 1 where the connection comes in I called Maritta to chat with her a bit. As I arrived, I set my things down near the path to the porch and was still talking on the phone.

As I stood there, looking down at the ground about two feet from my foot was an odd looking blade of grass....odd looking until it flicked it tongue at me! I was face to face with a snake. I took a deep breath and slowly backed away......it was a green mamba one of the most venomous snakes in the world. My heart was racing, I waited a few seconds to tell Maritta on the other end of the phone....I knew she would freak and I did not want her to scare the snake!
I stood back about 10 feet frozen not really knowing what to do and looking for someone to tell. The snake took a short look at my things sitting there on the ground and then decided to go away into the grass. I went and got security to kill it but they could not find it. The security guard proceeded to show me how to kill it if I saw it again....I told him I did not want to know, that was his job!

One week to go here and I am anxious to be home. I miss Maritta and the kids and look forward to seeing them.