The phone call had a slight air of panic about it. “I can’t find Mama Eric!” Paul had taken Rob to meet her and had carefully followed the path that had been taken the time before to visit her home. Often transient, as she was frequently moved on by one landlord after another, home was for the moment, a tiny, dark shack deep in the slums of Kigali.

She had been found to be moved on to a new home on many previous visits but somehow, miraculously, she always seemed to know when to expect her British visitors and would be waiting in the street or someone would appear to direct them to her door. It has often been commented on that we may have been unaware of angels in our midst as they us showed the way to this tiny, godly lady.

Those who have followed Equip’s news for a while will know how precious Mama Eric is to us. She is one of the most marginalised of any society and yet she is also a faithful prayer warrior whom we have known, visited and supported for over ten years. She has hosted dozens of members of Equip teams and King’s School pupils and staff in her cramped rooms over that decade and there will be those of you who as you read this, will remember sitting at her feet, her beautiful smile welcoming you despite any language barriers as she prayed for your lives and your futures.

But today was different. No one seemed to know where she was. That was unusual – a real character within her neighbourhood, despite her minute stature – people always knew where she was. Perhaps Paul had taken a wrong turn as all the alleyways look so similar or maybe she had been moved on again to an area where she was not known.

And so here in the U.K. I took that phone call. For Paul to call, so briefly and to the point, meant there was a real problem. He needed miracle as hunting in the slums was like looking for a needle in a haystack!

This time it was our turn to pray for her. So many times she has poured out her heart to her loving Heavenly Father on our behalf and we did not want her to miss out on a visit today. She so loves us to visit! Paul and Rob’s plane would leave in just a few hours so time was short. After a few texts to mobilise some prayer support to give the problem to God, we prayed and we waited to hear.

After almost an hour the familiar ping of WhatsApp rang out in the Bank Holiday sunshine. An image of her showed up on the screen. And the words accompanying it simply stated – “We made it – another miracle!“.

I have no idea what the story is of how they found her today, no doubt I will have all the details by tomorrow, but I do know that in the hot, dusty, mud baked shacks of Kigali sits a little bit of the Kingdom of God on earth!

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