Roy Michael Nel
Prayer Partner
Dear fellow servants of Christ,
I think it was very well-timed that I got a new e-mail from Prayer Request this morning. I decided to share this prayer request with you all.
I'm in a really difficult situation. I'm engaged to my fiance Maggie, but the engagement seems to have gone rather sour. Yes, we have our good times, but the bad times outnumber the good. Maggie's stepfather Donald is incredibly difficult to handle. He's helping me get my Visa so that I can move out of South Africa and go and live with my widowed mother in California. In-between, however, he's throwing heaps of false accusations at me such as me calling Maggie fat. Even worse, he doesn't give me a chance to defend myself or explain things. It's the very sad story of the innocent suffering instead of the perpetrators. A couple of days ago, we were visiting friends for a birthday braai, and Donald saw me pick up my smartphone. Without even asking me what I was doing on my phone, he shouted at me to stop gossiping about his family to my mother! All I was doing was checking my e-mail, but he just called me a liar! Both Donald and even Maggie think that each and every time I pick up a communications device such as a smartphone for Whatsapp or a laptop PC for e-mail, all they think I'm doing is contacting my mother to paint their names black, bring them into disrepute with the rest of the world, and tell my mother how rude they were to me. But I don't do things like that! And then they threaten to contact my mother to try and get her on their side and put me firmly in the wrong. It's a tug-of-war that happens much too often.
This morning, I paid a compliment to a lady who's getting married later on this month, and her husband-to-be was also around. I told her that it takes a real woman (or man) to admit when they're wrong, and apologize for it. She'd apologized for snapping at me because she was in a bad mood, and I accepted it. Moments later, except for those two, everybody else was having a really fierce, violent go at me verbally, and Donald said that my next hiding is going to come way sooner than my next meal! And Maggie accused me of flirting with her, but I'm sure I wasn't flirting. What did I do?
Just so you know, I've been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (also known as high-functioning autism or an ASD - autism spectrum disorder). Look it up on Internet. It causes a lot of social problems and I say or do things, not wanting to get myself or anybody else into trouble, but I get into trouble anyway! And I ask myself: "Why am I in trouble again? I always mean well, and don't like to cause trouble!" There's a lot of help and support for people with ASDs close to where my Mom lives. One such charity is the Coachella Valley Autism Society (the CVASA). They have a website. But the people I live with are either not educated in, or aren't interested in being educated on Asperger's Syndrome. I'm sure it's causing problems.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I don't want to make this request too long. Please just pray for the following:
God Bless you all, my dear friends. I'll be praying for you all as well.
Roy Nel (Johannesburg, South Africa).
I think it was very well-timed that I got a new e-mail from Prayer Request this morning. I decided to share this prayer request with you all.
I'm in a really difficult situation. I'm engaged to my fiance Maggie, but the engagement seems to have gone rather sour. Yes, we have our good times, but the bad times outnumber the good. Maggie's stepfather Donald is incredibly difficult to handle. He's helping me get my Visa so that I can move out of South Africa and go and live with my widowed mother in California. In-between, however, he's throwing heaps of false accusations at me such as me calling Maggie fat. Even worse, he doesn't give me a chance to defend myself or explain things. It's the very sad story of the innocent suffering instead of the perpetrators. A couple of days ago, we were visiting friends for a birthday braai, and Donald saw me pick up my smartphone. Without even asking me what I was doing on my phone, he shouted at me to stop gossiping about his family to my mother! All I was doing was checking my e-mail, but he just called me a liar! Both Donald and even Maggie think that each and every time I pick up a communications device such as a smartphone for Whatsapp or a laptop PC for e-mail, all they think I'm doing is contacting my mother to paint their names black, bring them into disrepute with the rest of the world, and tell my mother how rude they were to me. But I don't do things like that! And then they threaten to contact my mother to try and get her on their side and put me firmly in the wrong. It's a tug-of-war that happens much too often.
This morning, I paid a compliment to a lady who's getting married later on this month, and her husband-to-be was also around. I told her that it takes a real woman (or man) to admit when they're wrong, and apologize for it. She'd apologized for snapping at me because she was in a bad mood, and I accepted it. Moments later, except for those two, everybody else was having a really fierce, violent go at me verbally, and Donald said that my next hiding is going to come way sooner than my next meal! And Maggie accused me of flirting with her, but I'm sure I wasn't flirting. What did I do?
Just so you know, I've been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (also known as high-functioning autism or an ASD - autism spectrum disorder). Look it up on Internet. It causes a lot of social problems and I say or do things, not wanting to get myself or anybody else into trouble, but I get into trouble anyway! And I ask myself: "Why am I in trouble again? I always mean well, and don't like to cause trouble!" There's a lot of help and support for people with ASDs close to where my Mom lives. One such charity is the Coachella Valley Autism Society (the CVASA). They have a website. But the people I live with are either not educated in, or aren't interested in being educated on Asperger's Syndrome. I'm sure it's causing problems.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I don't want to make this request too long. Please just pray for the following:
- That I get out of this dreadful family situation very soon.
- For my USA Immigrant Visa to be granted this week. I want to be on that aircraft two days after getting it.
- That California and the CVASA would be just the right area for me in which to live, and the right charity to help give me the best social life I've ever had. Even a wife who understands me and my ASD very well, and is still patient and loving towards me.
God Bless you all, my dear friends. I'll be praying for you all as well.
Roy Nel (Johannesburg, South Africa).