“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered…….” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12
Matthew 19:30 states that “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” This week my first daughter is the last to tell you about. Her name is Annie, and she was not born in Africa. She was born in Fort Meade Army Hospital, Maryland, in 1955. And she was two years old when we sailed out of New York harbor past the Statue of Liberty on our way to London. Why London before Africa? Because Bob wanted to take a course in London in tropical medicine and hygiene. We lived in London from August 1957 to April 1958. It was a great experience for Annie and me to learn how to manage the TUBE if we wanted to go anywhere.
When we got to Tanzania, Annie wanted a monkey and we let her have one. I laugh every time I think of the monkey riding on Annie’s back and peeking out through her long hair.
Annie was 7 years old when we moved to Moshi for Bob to work on the hospital he wanted to build there. I was told that Moshi had no school for Annie. I really struggled with the Lord on that. Where most missionaries sent their children was to the mission school (Kiamboi) ten hours drive away. Sad, but obediently I sewed name tags on everything Annie needed in boarding school. I could hardly stand the thought of sending a seven-year-old little girl so far away where we would see her only three times a year. Enter a compassionate God! Two days before she was to go, a friend found out that I was a teacher and asked me if I would fill the vacancy in the International School in Moshi. Would I ever!! At just the right moment God provided a school for my children and a job for me!
I taught Annie for three years in that school. Knowing that children learn to read by reading, I wrote to as many publishers in the US I could think of and asked for damaged or mis-printed books they could send me. Publishers were generous with their help, and I soon had a library of several hundred books. Annie read them all. She not only learned to read, she loved to read. Often I would find her in the bathroom with a flashlight reading when she was supposed to be in bed. She reads fast and she remembers everything she reads. When she was about ten, I asked her if she wanted to read Pilgrims Progress and she said that she had already read it 5 times!
Her carefulness with detail and her artistic ability helps her design houses and make them beautiful. That’s what she does now. Furthermore, she helped Rafiki when we were building the Home Office. She suggested that we make the floors from painted concrete, she painted and decorated the walls in the Exchange building, and she made the buildings (all 14 of them) beautiful.
Annie lives in Saint Augustine with her husband and makes sure she gets over to see me in Mount Dora at least once a month.
There is something special about a first child. What is extra-special about my first child Annie is that she led my third child Tova to the Lord when they were both teenagers.
I daily thank the Lord for my three daughters. Do you thank the Lord daily for the children he gave you?
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