We live in an age of extreme emotional stress, anxiety and mental pressure. Children as young as seven years old are "diagnosed" with mental disease and put on medication to deal with hyper-activity. As a result moms need medication to deal with their anxiety over their children. Dad's come home and grab the whiskey bottle to try and relax after a hectic day at work. Then they have to put up with nagging wives and screaming and rowdy kids. The TV blares in the background, the dog is freaking out on the front porch and everyone is strung as tight as a bowstring. Pharmaceutical companies are doing a roaring trade in "meds" whilst therapists need therapy to cope with their own workloads and domestic issues. Here at House Regeneration we sit with the end result. We deal here with those people who could not find help in the worlds therapeutic environment. Some have been going to mental health care and have been on medication for 12 years and even more. Are we faced with challenges? Are we perplexed at times? Do we almost despair? Do we get stressed out ourselves? Are we in need of therapy? You bet!!!!!!!
Apart from the fact that we have a very successful program with dynamic content that really works, and apart from the fact that Annatjie and I have an excellent relationship through which we communicate well and support each other. Apart from the fact that we have wonderful fellowship with Christian friends, God deemed it fit to give us our own therapist. He has no formal training in therapeutic techniques and in fact cannot even speak. He keeps very strange hours and often wakes us up in the middle of the night. On top of that he is quite messy with his eating habits and pays little attention to normal hygiene. Fortunately he is very small so it is easy to clean up after him.
After a mishap with a bedroom cupboard door he required emergency surgery which caused tremendous stress in Annatjie. Our African bush baby named Apie lost his tail. Apie is our therapist. He lives among some discarded tracksuits in the top shelf of my clothing cupboard in our bedroom. He is the third bush baby we raised. The other two returned to the wild among great tears. This one however came much later and he refuses to even leave the house, despite open doors and windows. He adopted us as his family.
This little creature is a real blessing from God. No matter how tired we are or stressed out, his affection, his antics while jumping around all over us and the room, his cute little ways, are the best natural remedy after a hectic day among our fellow humans in need of therapy. Yes, God has blessed us with our very own therapist. To try and describe his techniques are impossible.
When I took him to the vet on that fateful day when his tail was pinched in the door, I got a severe scolding from the animal doctor.
"You are raising a couch potato" she bitterly complained because he was so overweight. I explained that his diet is strictly according to nature in terms of protein, greens and so forth. He gets meal worms, salad leaves, a little bit of milk and so forth. What we did not realize at the time is that Apie was a very clever little thief. Whenever we came back from a restaurant he would be into Annatjies handbag without us knowing, looking for mints or sugar sachets. She had a habit of always throwing one or two sachets in her bag for "emergencies". Apie became the emergency who would consume them discreetly in a dark corner somewhere.
Every morning we go through a ritual in bed. Annatjie reads something from the Bible which I normally expound on. Apie jumps and plays all over us putting a smile on our faces and depositing joy in our hearts. He has his breakfast while we get dressed and then crawls into his little den for the daytime snooze. About 4.30 in the afternoon he sleepily appears and jumps onto the first shoulder that presents itself. Our early evening therapy sessions then start.
Is God not good to give us such an exceptional therapist? He is not out for hire so by the way.
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