{"id":44335,"date":"2017-03-24T12:52:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T11:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandavats.tumblr.com\/post\/158774026791"},"modified":"2017-03-24T12:52:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T11:52:04","slug":"stories-from-the-road-mfundo-nkosi-my-first-experience-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=44335","title":{"rendered":"Stories from the Road. \nMfundo Nkosi: My first experience in…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Stories from the Road.
\nMfundo Nkosi: My first experience in book distribution left an indelible mark on my consciousness. I was afraid to approach anyone and couldn\u2019t even summon the courage to speak, muted as though gagged by fear. I then noticed a lady sweeping the sidewalk nearby. Her broom dragged across the dirt with great effort. It looked like she was writing a sad poem in the dust with the broom as her pen and her tears provided the ink. Drawn by her silent anguish I approached her and asked, \u201cAre you okay?\u201d She looked up and stared at me with eyes glistening from the tears she failed to hold back. I stood there stunned, thinking what an awkward situation I had plunged myself into and my heart sank at her falling tears. The lady then spoke in a somber voice, \u201cDoes God exist?\u201d After a moment I said, \u201cI have this book [Chant and Be Happy]. It speaks about establishing a relationship with God by calling His names.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t have any money\u201d, she responded digging into her pockets to show only a single Rand. Knowing one Rand may not be enough she ran to one of her colleagues and stopped a few people in the street imploring them to spare a little change so she could purchase the book. I couldn\u2019t move, startled by this lady\u2019s desperation. She hurried back to me and said, \u201cThis is all I can get,\u201d stretching out her arms to me as she cupped the coins in her hands. She amassed all of five rands. I took the donation but what really purchased the book was her desperation to find God. That was the only book I distributed that day. I know not what became of that lady; however, she made a deep impression in my heart that I hope to carry with me always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Stories from the Road.
\nMfundo Nkosi: My first experience in book distribution left an indelible mark on my consciousness. I was afraid to approach anyone and couldn’t even summon the courage to speak, muted as though gagged by fear. I then noticed a lady sweeping the sidewalk nearby. Her broom dragged across the dirt with great effort. It looked like she was writing a sad poem in the dust with the broom as her pen and her tears provided the ink. Drawn by her silent anguish I approached her and asked, “Are you okay?” She looked up and stared at me with eyes glistening from the tears she failed to hold back. I stood there stunned, thinking what an awkward situation I had plunged myself into and my heart sank at her falling tears. The lady then spoke in a somber voice, “Does God exist?” After a moment I said, “I have this book [Chant and Be Happy]. It speaks about establishing a relationship with God by calling His names.” “I don’t have any money”, she responded digging into her pockets to show only a single Rand. Knowing one Rand may not be enough she ran to one of her colleagues and stopped a few people in the street imploring them to spare a little change so she could purchase the book. I couldn’t move, startled by this lady’s desperation. She hurried back to me and said, “This is all I can get,” stretching out her arms to me as she cupped the coins in her hands. She amassed all of five rands. I took the donation but what really purchased the book was her desperation to find God. That was the only book I distributed that day. I know not what became of that lady; however, she made a deep impression in my heart that I hope to carry with me always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44336,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44335\/revisions\/44336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}