Little Francis visits the crib

Sister Mary O’Shea recalls a story from her days in Cameroon 

    Francis was born in Cameroon.  He was a bright, quiet little boy.  When he was seven years’ old he complained to his father and mother that some local people were worrying him in his dreams and he was very frightened. His father took him to local doctors and wise people but Francis’ problem continued.   He thought there might be evil spirits involved. He brought his son to me, and I suggested we would go to Fr John and we would all pray together. We did so and Fr John said, “There is no evil in this child.”
It was Christmas time and I thought it would be nice for him to visit the crib as they did not have a crib in their church.  I took each figure out and handed it to him, explaining who they were, and we told him the Christmas story.  Francis was very happy with this experience and relaxed.  I gave him a little crib to take home.
His father came to me some time later and said the bad dreams had disappeared and Francis was a much happier little boy.  He shared the story of Christmas with his little friends.
How God love s us when we come to Him in Prayer!
Mary worked in Cameroon in education and pastoral activity.  She also led a project to replace the Eucalyptus trees which were destroying the water table and depriving the people of water.  This involved uprooting 60,000 Eucalyptus and replacing them with  15,000 Prunus africanus, a local species.  And the water table recovered!