Angel

Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love.  Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed.  Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!

Hebrews 13: 1-2

This past weekend was pretty much a washout.  The whole city was awoken Saturday morning to bright flashes of lightning followed by loud, earth shaking thunder as the rain pelted down on our metal roofs.  Around thirty minutes into the storm following a huge clap of thunder, the power throughout the village went out and remained that way for the rest of the weekend.  The rain lent itself nicely to my already sleepy mood on Saturday.  I spent most of the morning listening to podcasts, catching up on YouTube and lesson planning.  The normally bustling campus was quiet other than the squeals of little ones as the students ran to and from the dining hall at meal times.  The rest of the day they hunkered down in their dorms reading, doing homework, and playing games.  The sun made an appearance Sunday morning before the rain clouds returned and, of course, just as it was time to leave for church, the heavens opened and the rains poured down again.  It was another lazy day around KEMPS which no one, especially the dorm mothers, seemed to mind.  But this morning as I woke to the heavy rains beating down on my roof, I immediately thought of one of my students, Angel.
Angel is a girl in my fifth grade class.  She sits in the front row smiling with eyes bright and works hard.  Her name tag, which she made on my first day in her class, has her name in a big bold font on the front, and on the back, where she was to write an adjective to describe herself, it says ‘beautiful’ in curvy red letters.  Angel is a day student, which means she does not live on campus like some students do, so she walks to and from school every day.  Angel is also paralyzed on the left side of her body.  She walks with a limp, dragging her left leg behind her right.  Her left shoulder is nearly nonexistent so that her school sweater hangs down well beyond her hand.  When she is not carrying her school bag or her notebooks, she supports her left arm with her right.  The paralysis affects the left side of her face as well.  She often catches herself drooling from the left side of her mouth and quickly wipes it away before the other students see.  

I didn’t realize that Angel walked to school until one day last week when it was, once again, raining.  Angel wasn’t in class when I arrived for first period.  During second period as I was teaching another class I saw Angel walking up the ramp to her classroom, her head and upper body covered with a thin cloth that was soaked through.  Another teacher saw her walking in and said, “Oh Angel, sorry.”  “Thank you”, she replied.  I saw Angel later that day and I asked her if she walks to and from school every day and she told me yes.  She said she left home every day at six to arrive at school by seven thirty.  I asked her why she wasn’t taking the bus and she told me that her parents could not afford the bus fees. That night I told Joseph about Angel.  He asked me many questions that I also had been wondering.  What happened to her? Why wasn’t she taking the school bus? How could we help her?

Later in the week I asked one of the veteran teachers about Angel.  I told her about the conversation we’d had and asked her if she knew about Angel’s family’s financial struggles.  She told me that Angel was not born paralyzed.  She got very sick when she was seven and the doctor’s thought she might die.  They were able to cure her sickness, but she was left partially paralyzed.  Angel lives with her father and is cared for by her grandmother because her mom passed away when she was young.  After Angel became paralyzed, the government school she was attending with her brother, refused to take her.  They said that they couldn’t accommodate her disabilities.  Her father came to nearby KEMPS, knowing he couldn’t afford it but wanting the best for Angel, to ask if they would allow her to study.  She was in the third grade when she was accepted at KEMPS and she had never studied at an English medium school before.  I listened carefully to the teacher, my heart breaking for Angel and her family.  She told me that she knew her father could not afford the bus fees and that Angel’s grandmother was often in the school office requesting more time to make her school fee payments.  Though the teacher told me Angel lived “not too far from school”, I reminded her that what may not be far for us is much farther for Angel.  She agreed completely.  I asked the teacher if it would be appropriate for me to try to find someone to help pay for Angel’s bus fees.  Without hesitation she said yes and hugged me, thanking me and giving me God’s blessing. 

As I walked away I began thinking of how to raise the money for Angel.  Do I post on Facebook? Do I ask in my blog? Should I reach out to my church groups? All of those things take time and Angel needs help now.  Then I remembered Marilyn.  The Sunday I was leaving for Tanzania, a woman named Marilyn from my mom’s church pulled me aside into the nursery.  She handed me an envelope with tears in her eyes and said, “I want you to use this to help someone who needs it.  It’s not a lot, but it’s what I have to give, and I know you’ll find someone who can use it more than me.”  Goosebumps appeared on my arms and down my neck as I recalled Marilyn’s words, now with Angel in mind.  Of course.  There couldn’t be a more worthy recipient of Marilyn’s generosity than sweet Angel. 

Doesn’t God work in amazing ways? Marilyn felt called to give from what she had, and I received her gift, neither of us knowing when or how or who it would help, but God knew.  God already knew long before that it was going to change Angel’s life for the better.  He provides for his children, and He works through us to do so.  You may not know how or when, but he is working through you too. 

Mungu akubariki,

Allee 

If you would like to donate towards my work in Tanzania, you can send donations electronically using: 

Venmo: @Alison-Gomulka
Cash App: $AlisonGomulka
PayPal: PayPal.Me/AlisonRGomulka
Zelle: alisonrg24@gmail.com

If you would prefer to send a check, you can mail it to 

Alison Gomulka

15601 Shady Brook Lane

College Station, TX

77845

Sweet Angel.  When I showed her this picture her response was, 'Yes! I look good!'