My Walk With God

By Sidney Mpofu and Precious Mpofu

Sidney left his family devastated without any hope that they will ever see him again as he was transferred from United Bulawayo Hospital to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare because he was very sick. It was made worse when they were later told that he had a rare cancer that had gotten him paralyzed and he had only a few days to live. It only needed God’s intervention to change the situation. The family’s joy and celebration at his graduation was short lived. The plan to grow his business in order to improve their lives was shattered. The only reasonable thing to do was to hope for a miracle from God. What else could they do when faced by two deadly enemies: rare cancer and paralysis? The whole family decides to hold on to the helm. They decide to look nowhere else but to the hills where they are very sure help will come from. Throughout this book, the authors narrate with passion his walk with God where others thought he was in a jungle or dungeon. It is indeed a walk with God: not for him alone, but for the whole family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sidney Mpofu
• Release date: Aug 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463965276

Sidney Mpofu

Sidney Mpofu is a husband to Precious Mpofu and together they are parents to three children; two boys named Vuyisile and Ndumiso and a girl named Sinothando. He is a qualified mechanic who was apprenticeship trained and engaged with Delta Distribution (which later became Delta Beverages) in the Transport Services Division for ten years. He later left Delta to start his own small car repair business. It is this small business that saw him do his studies after five years of leaving Delta as he was able to take care of all the other requirements without disturbance. In 2014 Sidney finished his studies at the University of Science and Technology with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. He graduated in November of that year and started making plans to improve his life and that of his family.

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My Walk With God

Copyright 2019 Sidney & Precious S Mpofu

Published by Sidney & Precious S Mpofu at Smashwords.

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Table Of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Chapter One: Journey From Namibia To Zimbabwe

Chapter Two: Finally In Bulawayo

Chapter Three: First Hospital Admission In My Life

Chapter Four: Ward B2 At Parirenyatwa

Chapter Five: Third Floor At The Cancer Ward

Chapter Six: Journey To Ludhiana, India

Chapter Seven: Apollo (Satguru) Hospital, Ludhiana India

Chapter Eight: Time To Go Back Home

Chapter Nine: Recovering At Home

Chapter Ten: God’s Healing Hand Seen

Chapter Eleven: Preparation For A Bone Marrow Transplant

Chapter Twelve: Bone Marrow Transplant Finally Done

The End

About The Authors

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Abstract

Sidney left his family devastated without any hope that they will ever see him again, as he was transferred from United Bulawayo Hospital, to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, because he was very sick. It was made worse when they were later told that he had a rare cancer that had gotten him paralyzed and he had only a few days to live. It only needed God’s intervention to change the situation. The family’s joy and celebration at his graduation was short lived. The plan to grow his business in order to improve their lives was shattered. The only reasonable thing to do was to hope for a miracle from God. What else could they do when faced by two deadly enemies: rare cancer and paralysis? The whole family decides to hold on to the helm. They decide to look nowhere else, but to the hills, where they are very sure help will come from. Throughout this book, the authors narrate with passion his walk with God where others thought he was in a jungle or dungeon. It is indeed a walk with God: not for him alone, but for the whole family.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my wife for her great support at a difficult time of our lives; she really meant every word when she said IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH. I am also very thankful to family members for being there for us, and supporting us in every way possible. I am grateful to have a loving mother who sacrifices everything for her children. My gratitude will be incomplete without mentioning the Tachionas, Pastor Cliford Sibanda, Qhubekani Zondo, and Dr Mbono Dube, the much loving members of Bulawayo City Centre Seventh Day Adventist church, the entire Seventh Day Adventist Church and caring friends who went out of their way to assist us at a time of need. I am not able to mention everyone by name because there are so many people who helped us, the names may fill a book. Above all I thank God for stirring people’s hearts in a special way towards us and giving us the ability to go through the perilous time unshaken.

Chapter One: Journey From Namibia To Zimbabwe

In December 2014, Charles Mpofu my young brother and I went to Namibia to fetch a Kenworth truck (horse) that we bought from America for haulage business. When we got there we found that the tyres had developed cracks on the side walls because of weathering. We looked for new tyres to at least fit on the front axle. We knew that Americans always want to be unique, their tyre sizes are not compatible to the ones we have in Africa nor elsewhere in the world. For that reason, we needed to look for rims compatible to the hub type and tyres found around but that was also a nightmare. In the end, we decided to move carefully on these worn tyres.

We left Walvis Bay on Tuesday, the 9th of December 2014 late afternoon. After driving for a few kilometers out of Swakopmund, I realized that the truck was overheating. I pulled off the road so that I could investigate what was causing the problem. As a motor mechanic, it did not take me long to realize that the fan belt was loose and needed to be adjusted. However, we did not have the tools to use for the adjustment so we had to move slowly hoping to get help along the way. Sure enough after driving for some time, we found trucks that were off the road. One of the trucks had its cab tilted showing that it was being attended to. We stopped to ask for spanners that could be used to adjust the fan belt but these gentlemen did not have. We discovered they were coming from Malawi. They were waiting for one Zimbabwean gentleman who was working in a mine close by, to bring them tools. We decided to wait as well. The Zimbabwean gentleman finally appeared at sunset with a number of tools but some of the needed spanners were missing. However, I tried to make do with what was available. The mine worker was such a sympathetic man. He dashed back to find the required spanners. When he came back with correct tools, the problem on the Kenworth truck was sorted. We then went to help the other gentlemen fix their truck which had an overheating problem as well. They wanted to remove the thermostat so I helped them remove it and assembled all other bits that they had removed from their E.R.F (horse) truck.

We had another problem of starting it up because of a drained battery. Fortunately, we had jumper cables so we jump started the E.R.F. These gentlemen drove off and we followed behind. After driving for some time, it was seen that the E.R.F had a bigger problem and was still overheating and the gentlemen decided to tow it. Charles and I still followed behind in case there could be a need to help these gentlemen who obviously were in trouble. It was late at night and the slow speed was beginning to affect me, I began to feel sleepy. To keep myself awake, I had to increase speed and overtook our newly found friends. My idea was to catch some sleep at a small town called Karibib. We arrived at Karibib at around 01:00 in the morning, parked at a filling station and rested; tiredness had surely taken its toll. We woke up at 06:00am. After freshening up and grabbing some breakfast, we took off towards Omaruru. Around 08:00am the temperature was already very high and we were around 30km from Omaruru when we heard a sudden burst like a bomb. The truck veered off the road to the left and I immediately realized that it was a tyre burst. I knew I just needed to control the vehicle without actuating brakes because braking would have been very dangerous. The Kenworth finally stopped off the road, we guessed well; there was extensive damage to the pneumatic system, bumper and the left headlight.

We did not have a wheel spanner and bar to remove the burst tyre so we waited for passers-by to help. Unfortunately, Namibian people do not just stop for strangers. It took us a long time to get help. It was during this waiting period that we started reflecting and realizing that it was by the Lord’s grace that we moved slowly at night otherwise if the tyre burst had happened when we were moving at high speed something worse might have happened.

Most passers-by who stopped had the wrong size spanners. We tried several drivers to no avail and we were beginning to lose hope. We asked God to send someone in that direction with a correct size spanner and sure He did. After a long struggle, one gentleman came with the correct wheel spanner and a long bar that he had made. We tried to loosen the nuts but we failed because of the sea water that had caused the nuts to be too tight. We negotiated with the gentleman to sell us the tools, so that we could remain trying without inconveniencing him further.

After negotiating for some time, he finally agreed. Though the amount charged for the tools was way too high, we had no choice but to pay the driver. We indeed had no option since we were stranded. By then it was already late afternoon. We kept on trying but we did not win. As if the fast approaching setting of the sun was not enough, our bar broke at the tip that fits into the wheel spanner. We looked at each other and were both at loss of words for what seemed to be a long time.

"Charles, I think we need to call our cousin brother Mduduzi in Windhoek; this is now beyond us";

I suggested spreading my hands in the air. It seemed all my mechanic know-how had broken into pieces when the bar broke.

"What will he do Sid? We are stuck here. We are going nowhere. Eish!"

Charles had completely lost hope.

"Let’s just try. You may never know. Am hoping he can organize gas bottles and some other stronger spanners. God cannot bring us this far to abandon us my brother."

I somehow was very sure our cousin brother would not hesitate to lend a hand. After all he was our only relative in that foreign land.

"Here, it is ringing."

My brother had already dialed the number. Thank God for mobile technology! We asked our cousin brother to bring us some gas bottles and other stronger spanners.

Our cousin did not even hesitate. He came at midnight and brought a small brazing bottle, some spanners and food which we so much needed because we had spent the whole day without food. We tried to heat the nuts with the small brazing bottle but the flame was too weak to break the tightness and all the efforts failed. During the day, that same Wednesday, we had tried to find help from Omaruru, unfortunately, it was a holiday and Namibians close down all their shops on holidays, so we could not find help.

We, however, found a phone number of one engineering company and contacted the owner. He told us that he was on holiday and would only attend to us the following day which was a Thursday. We spent another night in the bush in order to get help and sought help again the following day. We telephoned that shop owner several times but he kept promising to come and he never did. I had to go back to Omaruru to personally speak to the gentleman. He simply informed me that he had sublet the job to someone else because he felt they did not have the capacity for the job. The gentleman who had been given the job had actually honored his promise. He had gone to the scene and tried but failed, so he went back to Omaruru for more equipment. It was at that time, as he was coming back with his colleagues that they picked me up on their way back to the truck. We managed to loosen the nuts but after a long struggle. It was already dark by the time we finished, and we drove to the gentleman’s workshop at Omaruru. Visibility was now compromised because of the damaged headlights. However, we finally got to the shop where we parked overnight and slept in the truck. We were hungry but food had somehow become luxury since we had no idea what was next.

When we woke up the next day on Friday, we just had one agenda: working on the truck. Before we could attempt to do anything, we sought His guidance. We removed the seemingly good and strong tyres from the driving wheels to the front. Then we sorted out the pneumatic and electrical systems; we had to improvise the fog lights to use as headlights on bright. We also fitted a hooter because the truck did not have; the original one had been removed. All this work got finished late in the afternoon. The bill could not be settled there and there because we only had US dollars which needed to be changed at the bank to Namibian dollars. All banks and foreign exchange points were already closed. Being a small town, that did not come as a surprise to us. That meant we would welcome the Sabbath in that town and another night had to be spent on that same spot, well, God does have his own ways. The circumstances we were in forced us to change the US dollars the following day which was a Sabbath and pay in Namibian dollars because they could not accept the US dollar. We needed to pay the shop owner; we needed to get a decent bath and most of all we needed a proper meal. Three days on the same spot was no joke. I was also convinced that God would understand. Why not? A cow had fallen into a pit.

After paying the shop owner, we sought a Seventh-day Adventist church around but we could not find it. Maybe the language barrier was also at play. So we decided to start the journey in case we could find a church in the next town where we could fellowship. When we were around 60km from the next town which is called Otjiwarongo, the left front tyre burst again and this time it happened at some downhill area and the truck moved very fast down the incline but I could not dare brake. I tried to keep the vehicle on the road which proved to be a difficult task until I allowed it to move off the road but I tried my best to keep it on the edge of the road.

The truck seemed to be moving even faster and controlling it was becoming more difficult coupled with the fact that tyre pieces had damaged the pneumatic pipe that supplied the driver’s seat with air to give it height and comfort. The driver’s seat was now hard and had moved down such that the impacts of tyre fragments were hitting the bottom of the seat and the impact hammering directly on me. I could not see the surface of the road ahead because of the seat that had gone down and the rough ground was pulling the truck even more out of the road. It shook the truck vehemently and the steering was shaking uncontrollably.

The truck moved fast to the left side which was steeper as if it was going to overturn; I just clung onto the steering wheel not knowing what to do next until the truck just stopped before a culvert bridge.

"Praise God we are safe"

I said with a sigh of relief.

"Surely God has been good to us, it has been by His protective hand that we have been saved from death,"

Charles responded. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my right shoulder and on holding it I discovered the collar bone had been dislocated. Charles was fine because his side was not affected; we both alighted from the truck to assess the damage. As we alighted, another truck driver coming from the opposite direction had stopped to see what had happened. The moment I came face to face with that driver and saw the direction his truck was facing, it dawned on me that the Lord had dealt graciously with us. Had the truck burst the right tyre, we would have veered off to the right and hit head on with that oncoming truck and the rest would have been history. Instead of greeting this newcomer I turned to my brother and shocked him with a beaming face.

"Charles, despite all this I know that all things work together for good to