Hornet's nest

I stuck my hand in a hornet’s nest this week but I saw the Lord use it and the bites don’t bother me much. I went at 5:00 AM with 2 very drunk policemen to arrest the man who had badly abused Joaninina. He was shocked and couldn’t even figure out why the police were looking for him. It was this crazy mama doing something to defend this rebellious little orphan. He had most likely given her AIDS and then when he found she was pregnant casted her aside. Then one of his friends raped her. She was 10 at the time.
After going through the long process of her telling the story with him in the chair beside her and having it hand written in the book and then typed on an old typewriter he was locked up.
His uncle came the next day from a city about 50 miles away to ask me what had happened. He was not angry, just respectful and after hearing the story a bit remorseful. I told him that in my country it is not right to do these things and I wasn’t sure if this was acceptable here. He said it wasn’t right what his 21 year old nephew had done; to take a little girl in as a wife and not take care of her. I could see he was ashamed of the boy that bore his own name. He asked me to meet him the next day at the police station where the boy was.
That night I met with some of my older boys who already knew what was happening because they had assisted me when I picked this man up. They suggested letting the family deal with him which I had already considered because of this uncle. The next morning I met Joseph at the station and that’s where the hornet’s nest was. The boy’s boss was there along with some other family members. The boss was a white Portuguese man with obvious animosity toward us. I told him that my intention was to stop the process and trust his family to deal with him. He calmed down as he saw my heart and later offered to help Joaninia in some way. I remembered in Proverbs, it was written, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” I saw it in action today.
The people there at the domestic dispute office are wonderful and they like me but I am sure I confused them a bit when I requested the process to be stopped. They were so kind to help me in everything. The man dealing with it called his superior. She was at the other office in the city so I had to go pick her up and after writing a letter requesting the process to be stopped I drove her back. She was a lovely lady.
After all was said and done I drove the uncle back with us to Manga and dropped him off where he was staying. He tells us he will see us at our church on Sunday. I wondered if he would bring his nephew. Now, that would be strange wouldn’t it?
I suppose some people in my home country wouldn’t understand this compromise but here where children have little value it is unusual to bring this kind of thing to court. The community is something like a big family here and I was a bit afraid of the reaction of it. Women may secretly love me for doing what I did but most people will not understand.
Usually the process of things here takes a long time and frustrates me but this morning I was grateful that the documents I had done earlier this week had not been passed on to others that appoint a court date. The others involved I am sure were more grateful than I.
Matthew 5:25-26 says, “When you are on your way to court with your adversary settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison, and if that happens you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny. “
In this case the young man going to prison should have never gotten out for the sake of snuffing out the life a of a baby and little girl by giving her AIDS. Prisons here are not merciful; they are vicious. I hope that the shame he has brought to his family and boss will be enough to keep him from continuing to live like this.
As for Joaninia, she is learning to become a little girl here. I am watching her blossom and have great joy in helping others. I bumble my way through many things here but I trust the Lord is helping me to do the right things. Defending her was the right thing to do, for her sake. I saw a vision of a great hand plunging into a heap of stinky garbage and come out with a diamond. This is my Joaninia, she is a precious diamond. She is beginning to live now.