I know that the words in the title of this message don’t go together at all. How could I possibly write about mud, prayers and a guitar, especially when you are writing about just one day of life here! Yet, that’s how our God works in just one day if He so chooses as He did today!

Early this morning we left out to distribute mosquito nets to two of our bush schools. On our way to the first school we encountered the muddiest roads I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The rains the past few days have been so heavy. We hadn’t gone very far down the first part of the bush road when we realized we might get stuck at some point. With each bend we went around the road got worse and worse.

When we began to bog down the first time, I started praying. My prayer went something like this, Lord, please don’t let us get stuck. The next time we bogged deeper and I began to pray, Lord, please send your strong warriors to push us through this hole, and we made it through inch by inch. This happened several times and each time I would pray the same thing, please send your strong warriors to push us through and over and over again we barely moved through each hole, but we continued to be in motion. However, just when I was feeling all proud of myself for believing my requests were keeping us from getting stuck, yep, you guessed it, we got stuck. Not only stuck, but realllllllllllly stuck!

At that point I had to determine how I was going to handle the fact that the Lord had allowed us to get stuck! After all, He knew we were on a journey representing Him out in the bush, helping protect His children by giving them mosquito nets! He knew I would share the gospel where we were going, didn’t He want us to arrive and complete our task?

Needless to say, I had to have an attitude adjustment and change my prayers. I began to pray, Lord, how can you be glorified through us being stuck, how should I see this situation. Immediately down the road came 3 men walking. I knew then we were stuck because God intended for these men to help us. They walked into that deep mud without hesitation and pushed us out. I asked my driver to tell the men I’d like to give them some money for helping us. After I gave them the money I knew that we were allowed to get stuck because one if not all of those men needed the money.

I will never know what they might have needed it for, but God showed me that He uses His children to meet the needs of His other children. We needed the blessing of being pushed out of the mud and I have no doubts that these men needed the financial blessing.

This evening I saw God working much in the same way. Jimmy and another young man whose name is Moses came to help me move some things around. I have told you much about Jimmy, but I’ve not written about Moses yet. Moses is such an asset to everyone here, he is honest, hard working and dependable. He is 21 years old and was never given the opportunity to go to school. He cannot read or write, not even his name. His Mother was raped and that is how he came into this world.

His Mother later married and the man she married refused to accept Moses. She cast Moses out of her life and he lived most of his life surviving on the streets, totally alone until Pastor Moses and Rose took him into their home last year.

I always find small jobs for Moses to help me with. I remember the first time he came he cut the grass. I wrote the receipt out and ask him to sign for what I had paid him. My heart broke when I realized he couldn’t write his name. His English is very limited and our communication is not the best, but he has the greatest smile! When he knows you are proud of something he has done, there are no words needed.

The team that was here last month delivered a guitar. Jimmy has taught himself the keyboard and does a great job. The guitar was sent for him to learn to play as well. This evening after Jimmy and Moses had moved some things for me, I asked Jimmy to show us what he had learned thus far on the guitar. The guitar stays here at the mission house and he practices when he is here.

We had so much fun watching Jimmy try to get his fingers in the right positions and we laughed a lot! After Jimmy had been practicing for sometime it occurred to me that I should ask Moses if he would like to try. I had no idea he would accept because usually he keeps a distance with anything that might put him in a position to read. Jimmy had been sitting there practicing with a sheet he was reading that one of the team members had made for him with the chords for the guitar.

Moses was so excited to get to try! He fully embraced the opportunity to learn the chords. As I was sitting there watching him I realized something awesome. Even though he could not read the chord letter, he could look at the picture and know where to place his fingers. Jimmy began to help him place his fingers in the right places and within no time he was strumming beautiful chords with no help!

Moses first guitar lesson

Something tells me that this scene on my front porch is going to become a regular event with these two guys!

Pure Happiness For Moses and Jimmy

I can just imagine being in church and Jimmy playing the keyboard and Moses playing the guitar! What an awesome God we serve! He made a way for young man who can’t even write his name to learn to play an instrument by looking at pictures!

What a joy it is for me to get to see God working in so many different ways.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove Missionary – East Africa