Ethical dilemma and God protects our backs...

Tuesday 16th

It was an awesome day...because it became the day we had to face our first ethical dilemma. I can't say much more here. I'll send the story out in our soon to come our 'Stickyfinger Times'.

Wed, 17th

Our first miracle happened today. I rang Nang and she said her parents agreed to our conditions of 350 plus the one year in advance.

Thurs, 18th

The kids are in the second day at school. They had fun on wednesday. Sarah didn't get any homework, she was happy.

God's protection behind us

We ate breakfast- eggs and congee again- and set off for school. The road drains are currently under repair so we walked partly on the road and partly on the side of the road. I noticed Sarah stop a short way outside a gate and observe a mother dog. Her teats were hanging down. It looked as though she recently had pups. The mum looked like a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Sarah started walking up the street again, this time out on the road.

I turned around and kept walking then I heard Sarah screaming and a dog growling. One dog came out of the house and attempted to savage Sarah from behind but it stopped short. It stopped a few cm from the back of Sarah’s legs. It was snapping and snarling. At this stage Sarah screamed over passing trucks! I ran back a few paces and grabbed her then stood between her and the dog. The own of the house came out and stood in the open gate. I yelled at him to keep his gate closed. I could now see that he had 4 dogs. He motioned something to me but I didn't understand. He may have been asking as if Sarah was ok. I didn’t know. But that calmed me down. I motioned and asked him to 'please close the gate'.

I was recently reminded that we 'must not show anger because Lao people are easily offended with anger, particularly if it is directed at them'. The thought of Sarah being bitten, the fear of rabies already in our family conversations, was all a bit much for me. I got angry. I think this is appropriate anger.

What I do know is that God protects our backs. I believe an angel was there defending the dog off Sarah. Without the protection of God we will always get bitten. I'm not flippant about our need to stay alert. We learnt some physical and spiritual from this incident.

I was reminded that God has angels guarding our backs! We need not be overwhelmed with fear, we must keep walking on the streets. Our second lesson is alertness. We shouldn't stop at gates when there are dogs. Although Sarah didn't provoke the dog, and she was well outside the gate, a house with dogs is to be avoided completely if possible. The dog seemed to be 'protecting' its gate. Thirdly, if a dog attacks again, Sarah knows now to use her school bag as a shield against a dog attack and not to run blindly down the street screaming.

Thank God our backs are SAFE.

It’s been difficult to talk to Seth dogs. He has a fear of dogs with rabies. Every dog he sees now he asks if they have rabies. Do keep my little mate in prayer.