Prayer, Faith, and Endurance

Dad wrote about the Sacrament meeting at the Joburg Ward last week and I wanted to share a portion of the Sunday School lesson that impressed me from that day. Our teacher was a sister from Zimbabwe. The lesson was from D&C 101. She had been teaching about the persecution and trials and faith of the early saints. The African saints are very inspired by the pioneers. They know the stories and have deep regard for them and the hardships they endured.

Then she shared a personal experience. She said that as a child in Zimbabwe her family believed in God, although they were not members of the LDS church. When she was about 17, word came that soldiers were coming to her village to burn and destroy it and kill all the people. The frightened villagers fled their homes immediately. She and her family walked through the night and were aware that the soldiers were following them. They decided to hide in the brush and pray for protection. The soldiers stopped and made a little camp right where she and her family were hiding. The soldiers sat and ate, talking together for some time. She said that one man even came to relieve himself just feet from where she was hiding. He did not see her. After a time the soldiers left and the family remained in hiding until morning. When they left their hiding places they looked around at how open the area was and how easily they could have been seen but they not been discovered. They believed that they had been protected by God so that the soldiers could not find them.

She reminded us of the story of the little girls who saved the pages from the Book of Commandments and hid in the corn field. She asked, “Do you think that it would really be possible to hide a corn field and not be found when someone was searching for you?” Just as those little girls were protected by God, she believes that she and her family were protected from being discovered by the soldiers.

Then she then shared her admiration for the early Saints and the trials they had to endure. “We have trials but nothing like they had. We must be as faithful as they were.”

I thought again how little I can comprehend what these good people have endured in the past and even though I think they have difficult lives (certainly compared to my own) they frequently express sorrow for those who are experiencing hardships.

A meaningful Sunday School lesson for me and once again a reminder of the admiration I feel for those who are members here and throughout Africa.