PEDRO AND THE BROKEN POTS.

Drunk with rice-wine, Pedro kicked savagely at the earthen pots in the corner of the rough, thatched shack, as the cold night air pierced cracks in the flimsy walls. The pot shattered and the liquid trickled over the dirt floor as Lotia, his wife, stooped and shuffled through the doorway, carrying a load of wood on her back.

Lotia set the wood down beside a rough fireplace, and turned towards Pedro. Before she could speak, he lashed out at her.

‘Get out,’ he cried, and lunged at the second pot of beer.

‘What a waste,’ shouted Mrs Pedro, as she gathered a few sticks, to set fire to cook beans for their evening meal.

Every day was the same, with Pedro drunk, and beating his wife.

It was a sad, monotonous, tedious life for Pedro and Lotia. They had borne two children, but with lack of food the little ones died of hunger and neglect.

Would life always be so sad and gloomy.

One day when Pedro came along the men of the village gathered in small groups, pointing their fingers at him and whispering. Pedro pretended not to notice. He went out to the fields to hoe his corn patch, and tend the beans. At the end of the day he returned home again.

But there came a night when Pedro crouched through the hut’s low-cut doorway, greeted his wife, and sat down on the low rough stool made from wood gathered by Pedro at the roadside. Being poor he could not afford furniture, so on a sober day Pedro actually fixed the stool.

Now Mrs Pedro looked up in surprise, as Pedro entered so quietly, sat on the stool, and waited for his mush of beans.

With a rough wooden spoon Lotia ladelled out the beans into a gourd dish, which she handed to Pedro. He seemed so different lately, and quiet, no cursing, no swearing. Was he ill, she wondered? Nor had he brewed rice beer lately, realising also the high cost of rice. In their village many poor families could not afford rice, only beans. Yet men tried to find rice to make their drink, and families were sad as angry tempers frightened the little children.

Pedro’s changed behaviour puzzled Lotia. He must be sick she reasoned. Or perhaps the evil spirits had entered him. Lotia was afraid that evil spirits would curse them.

Next night Pedro came in, quieter than usual. He grunted,’Hello’, sat on his stool, opened up his sack bag and showed Lotia the rice.

‘Ah, you will make your rice beer,’ she accused Pedro, as she pointed at him. secretly intending to drink some herself while he worked in the fields. Surprisingly Pedro tilted the bag and trickled rice into a new clay pot, which she had baked in the hot sun that day.

‘There is food for us,’ he told Lotia. ‘We lost our children because we had no food for them. I will save rice and we shall grow strong, and when God gives us children , we will feed them well.’

Lotia looked scared. Something seemed wrong. It must be the spirits.

‘Who is God,’ she screamed at Pedro.

Quietly Pedro began to tell her the truth. ‘God is the One who lives in the heaven. He made the sky, and the trees, and the animals. He made a man and a woman, but they disobeyed God – and everyone else is like them, too. Both of us have disobeyed God.'

‘What is this strange talk, and who told you all this?’ Lotia angrily punched her hand into the air.

‘It is not strange talk, but true talk, which I heard from the christian teacher.’ Pedro sighed contentedly. He certainly knew that he was one of God’s children, because he received by faith the forgiveness of God, and Jesus’ death on the cross for him.

‘If you have been listening to those people with their talk, Pedro, I will not cook your meals.’ Pedro knew that she really meant that too. He turned away. For many days now he had not made the rice beer Instead he now saved small batches of rice, bought by selling small cooking pots. So the hostility and discouragement of his wife disappointed Pedro.

Nevertheless, Pedro could not read the little books that the christian teacher offered. Instead he learned a bible verse each day as the teacher explained God’s talk to His children. Patiently the teacher repeated verses ten times with Pedro, until he said them without mistake. Daily when Pedro came home he murmured the verse he learned that day.

True to her threat, Lotia refused to cook his meals. So as Pedro learned to cook, he always saved food for Lotia. As her hatred and anger grew, she often kicked his pots. So he had to hide the rice, but in spite of her fury, Pedro knew that Lotia failed to understand his changed life. Every time Lotia hurt her husband, by words or actions, he smiled and quietly muttered one of the bible verses. Often he recalled his favourite, ‘do not let your heart be worried’ or ‘I am with you always.’

Days, weeks, months went by, and still the enraged Lotia teased her husband. She seemed to forget her former anger when Pedro, so often drunk, broke their pots, and ill-treated her. Now she was bitter because of his changed life since he became a christian. Happily, God was working. Actually, Lotia’s anger covered over her unsettled life as she envied her husband.

One day Pedro came home, anticipating the worst. That day the hot sun beat relentlessly, and he was tired. How could he face his bitter wife. Pedro bent low beneath the shaky doorway, and scuffed on the dirt-floored room to his stool. He sighed as he expected Lotia’s usual hard talk.

‘Hullo,’ she said, smiling, as she squatted on the floor. Wide-eyed Pedro recoiled with surprise.

‘Pedro,’ said his wife, as she stirred the mush in the pot for them both. It was certainly a simple meal which she gladly prepared. ‘Pedro,’ she repeated with downcast eyes, ‘when you first heard the Jesus talk, I was upset.’ Pedro nodded. ‘I hated you when you were angry with me. Yet, when you heard the christian talk, I became furious with you. You acted differently, Pedro, and you stopped beating me. I rejected you and broke your pots when you were out in the fields,’ she admitted. Again Pedro silently nodded. ‘But you have changed. You did not scold me. Something good happened to you. Will you tell me please?’ Pedro nodded.

He smiled. God had changed him because of His love. Gladly Pedro explained how God sent Jesus Christ as a loving, forgiving Saviour to those who believed and turned away from their naughty ways. Lotia nodded. She understood. As she scooped out food into an old tin dish, and handed it to Pedro, she said,

‘When I saw how you always kept quiet when I was so angry, I thought it must be wonderful to listen to that christian talk. Pedro, is it for Bolivian women like me, or is it just for men? I want to know.’

Pedro stepped nearer to his wife. He put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Sit down, wife, and I will tell how the God of heaven loves all mankind, men and women.’

‘I think it will be nice when we can bear more children, Pedro, and feed them well, and tell them that God loved them, too, ’she responded, with a peaceful, joyful faith given to her as God’s grace gift.

Will you please pray for Michael Zbierski and Karyn Jones with their marriage on Saturday 4th March. In the midst of busy, computer programming, Mike has maintained the website devotedly and faithfully for 12 months. The web site will be reviewed after their honeymoon.