Unexpected Blessing

Get up and move two meters to the other side of the bench, or the next bench, sit, wait....

Sitting, waiting, waiting, get up move two meters to other end of the bench, sitting, waiting, waiting...

 Arrived about 9:45 or 9:50 am and sat in some chairs lined up next to two rows of 10 benches facing forward and two rows of five benches facing sideways. Three tables and chairs along the wall. The benches were open air with a roof. As the first person would get up and go to the table, the next person would move down the bench, all these people in a slow wave moving to the other end of the bench they were on or to the next bench until it reached my chair and I would move to the chair in front until I got to the benches..............a little after four hours and each end of 30 benches, I finally arrived at the table where a lady filled out a form and I walked into the foyer of the Antenatal Clinic in Ghana to get a Covid-19 vaccination which took three seconds after which Jeffrey and I got home at 2:25 pm. 

I experienced profound gratitude amidst rear numbing boredom. 

I watched a miracle happen while seemingly nothing was going on.

I was grateful I didn't need the washroom while watching others trek out a distance while I saved their place in line.

I had a wasted day sitting around that will give me peace of mind.

Just leaving for the day-

Jeffrey and I were headed out the door (shopping bags in hand) to go shopping at the mall when I got a ding for an email. Here is the email: 

Sister Adams, I am not at my laptop.  Could you please send an email to all Senior Missionaries in Ghana including Accra and Accra West, that vaccinations are being given today, tomorrow and Monday at the ANC by  RIDGE Hospital?

They should bring their passport. Open from 8 to 4. There is no charge.

ANC is Antenatal Clinic.  It is a red roofed building near the green roofed building behind the hospital which is at the end of the road behind our apartment building.

Thank you. 

Elder Dick

PS: So far it doesn't hurt.

 It took me 20 minutes to send out information and it took us another 20 minutes circling the block over and over to find the "green roofed building behind the hospital." When in doubt go in and ask the security guard at the hospital parking lot- who walked us back about a fourth of a mile to the "green roofed building" way behind the hospital.

Both Jeffrey and I were/and are very grateful for this unexpected opportunity to take action against this dreaded illness. If we do everything we can (even if it ultimately isn't effective) the Lord will make up the difference. 

I want to be like Jacob in Genesis 30: 37-38 who did everything in his power to strengthen his "cattle" or sheep: "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink." Today sheep herders or scientist may say this method does or doesn't work, it doesn't matter as the Lord made up the difference for Jacob as He will for Jeffrey and I when we do all we can with what we know (or think we know).

Around noon or 12:30, the nurse in charge of operations told everyone sitting waiting that there were no more shots to be given after those seated were done. All those standing would need to come back tomorrow. About 10 minutes later a large group of our missionaries showed up to get their immunizations. I felt bad that they finally found the place but wouldn't get their shots. The workings of the Lord went into play and they seated the missionaries in chairs that just after the announcement, a whole group of people got up and left to get on a bus. Two factors - 1. God always takes care of His missionaries. 2. I read this post which might be a reason they seat missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I got an answering email while waiting in line, that some of the missionaries did not have their passports because they are locked up at the Area Office in the travel department. Independence holiday for Ghana started on Saturday and the office is closed until Tuesday morning. The vaccinations would be given Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Sister Jeralie Hymas called around to people she knew and got someone to come in on Monday morning to open the travel office and check out missionary passports at 9 am sharp. About an hour later and eight benches later, I watched Elder Weston ask the man in charge if a laminated copy of his passport page would be ok (Sister Dick issues these out so our passports don't get confiscated or stolen by police or others) and the man in charge said that was just fine. So the missionaries are covered either way. It is so nice to have a missionary who knows who to call in a crisis and to watch the Lord make sure it all goes correctly.

I just end up feeling guilty for being bored and restless even while enjoying the breeze and not feeling discomfort from the hot weather.