60 Oranges

There was a faint knocking at the gate and at first I wasn’t even sure it was my gate, since there are at least three of them so close together.  I then saw an eye peeking through the small hole in the gate and knew that there was a visitor at the door.  Walking to the end of my driveway I wasn’t sure who I would find, but when I opened the gate I noticed an old man, with an animal skin hat, a bicycle, and a large bag of oranges.

This old gentleman started to ask if Beckie was home, since he knew Beckie, but I explained that she was out.  He wanted to know if I would be willing to buy some oranges because his grandson was in the hospital with malaria and he needed fees for the medicine.  There was something impressive about this man.  One, he wasn’t coming to just ask for money, he was willing to do a trade.  Two, he was selling the oranges way too cheap.  He was going to give me 15 pieces / 1000 shillings, but he needed 5000 shillings (about $2.50) and was going to give me 85 oranges.  I knew that I didn’t need 85 pieces, but I started to think that I could give them away during the Christmas season, so I said “okay”.

As this stranger was filling a bag with fresh fruit, he started to tell me that we were the same because he was also “born again” and that makes us children of Israel.  He said that even though times can be tough here on earth, we are both waiting for everlasting life.  He then gave me two Scripture verses to look up when I got back in the house.  I made him stop counting at 60 pieces, since I knew I was almost robbing the kind man of his fruit, and if he was able to sell more, I wanted him to be able to have some to sell so he could get more money for the hospital or just for his own life. 

Here were his verses for the day:
Psalm 41:1-3 “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.  The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.  The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”