My Other Favorite

I'm writing to you today from sunny California... Jeff's here on a business trip, and we had a free airline ticket that we had to use by July, so I was able to come along for free! We're in the LA area ~ yesterday we were in Burbank, and today it's Newport Beach. It's not as warm as I might like - it's hovering around the 70 mark - but the sun is warm. Since Jeff has meetings all day, I have to entertain myself... I worked out at the exercise facility here at the hotel, then sat at the pool for a while and had lunch there. I'll head back out to the sunshine shortly, but I thought I'd take a little time to tell you all about Mrs. L - my other favorite at Morningside House.

Mrs. L is also a widow, a believer, and a sweetheart, just like Mrs. A. (In fact, these two ladies are good friends and spend time together going on walks and to entertainment events and such.) She was a missionary to Africa for three years in her 20s before she got married, so we have a bit in common. She's always wanted to go to China (the doors to missionaries closed there just as she was graduating from Bible college), and I always wanted to go to Africa, so we had fun sharing sharing our stories with each other! She showed me her Africa album and I showed her my China one. And oh my goodness - the stories she told..... She was a nurse there, working all alone in a clinic in the middle of nowhere - I forget which country. Since she was the only medical expert in the area (besides the local witch doctors, of course), she had to deal with all of the ailments herself ~ crazy ones! Ones she wasn't even fully trained to handle - but she did, as best she could. I tell you what, I have a lot of respect for this woman. She was brave and resolute in her calling to the African people.

She's a New Englander, and when she left home for Africa she left behind a man who she shared a deep love with. Some people told her not to go, because if she did this man might not wait for her. But she knew she wanted to go to Africa... and that young man did wait those three years she was gone! They corresponded (via snail mail - remember that?) all of that time, and then they got married when she came back. They enjoyed many wonderful years of marriage together before he died - I'm not sure how long ago that was. She longs to go back to New England, but she can't. Her sons live in Virginia now, and there's just no way she could live away from them.

Now she lives with daily physical pain, and it's a severe trial for her to go through. Every day is a struggle. She longs for the day when she can be free from her body and present with the Lord. The last time I visited with her, she opened up about these things a little more to me, and her tears flowed... Goodness, it's hard watching an old lady cry like that. But we prayed together, and hopefully that brought encouragement to her spirit. What a precious woman of God!