The fax and Seventeen cents

I was newly arrived in the country and stood in a queue at the Internet cafe. In front of me a woman with two children and a baby on her shoulder, all impeccably clean and dressed but looking hungry, were standing. When they got to the top of the queue, the woman placed a fax on the counter for an African country. She gave what were obviously her last few cents to the young clerk behind the counter. He counted the cents patiently, and then told her she was short. The woman explained to him quietly that there had been a tragedy in the family, and the breadwinner had passed away. She was contacting her family in Africa to ask them to send some funds on to her, so they could survive until she managed to get a job. The clerk told her that the money for the fax was short seventeen cents, so he could not send the fax. People shifted uncomfortably in the shop as the woman refused to give up her place in the queue, pleading with the clerk to send the fax. She promised to bring back the shortfall once funds came. The clerk told her, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't send the fax. You are short of funds.' The woman began to cry, tears of despair streaming down her face. 'But if you don't, what is to become of me and my children? How will they eat?'

The young lad was at a loss, and said to her,'But how can I do this for you? If I sent a fax for everyone who was not able to pay, the shop would eventually have to close.' The woman was near breaking point at this time, and the young clerk as well. I stepped forward and offered to send the fax myself on the lady's behalf. She just looked at me, unable to speak. The childrens' huge eyes looked up at me, where they were sheltering behind her skirt. I sent off the fax, and met the lady outside and gave her sufficient funds to tide her over until the money came. She asked me for my address so that she could repay me. I told her not to worry. What she could do instead would be to go ahead and get work. Once she was employed and had money over she could then help someone else in financial need. The payment she could ask from them would be to do the same when their time of financial difficulty was over. The woman nodded slowly, closed the work roughened palm of her hand over mine, and just held my hand for a long time looking deep into my eyes. 'My children will eat today because of you,' she said. And then she went off. I have never seen her again.

Providence surely meant for us to meet that day. I had recently been in deep financial straits myself, being in a new country with all the financial drain on resources that entails. I had been financially assisted by my uncle and aunt, and by a friend from Africa when I was really struggling. And now I was passing on the candle. My dad taught me to do this when I was a child. His idea was that each person is a candle, lit from the great candle of God. Sometimes our light goes out, and we are trembling and vulnerable in a dark corner, needing help to be relit. It is up to another of us to pass on the light from our own little candle which the great God has lit from the Easter candle. And so it goes on.  A rainbow of blessings will light up the world as we pass on the goodness we have received from God to each other. And who knows where it will end...

In the spirit of Lumiere, please keep an eye out for someone who may be in need of our help today in some small or large way. I cannot count the times someone has gone out of their way to help me, such as fixing my car for free in freezing snow; paying for my food when I ran out of change at a supermarket; paying for my meal when I had been eating out locally and arrived at the paypoint to find someone had quietly offered to pay my meal as well as theirs before departing. Our local garage has a small bowl at each cashpoint where customers and staff sometimes donate some money. This is used by customers when they are near the end of the month and short of cash. On three occasions that little bowl really saved me, helping to pay for my petrol and keep mobile in order to enable me to get to work until my salary came in. It is a great joy to me now to pop in some cash every now and then, knowing the thrill it gave me the first time the staff behind the desk paid for my petrol.

And the payment? Just pass it on when you can...

Photograph taken by Rev. Catherine in Ireland. Please feel free to use copyright free for any Christian, educational or spiritual purpose.