Remembering.... Roaches in my apartment

When I first moved into John DeShields I began a battle that everyone living in government housing most likely faces... roaches. I laugh about it now when I think about it, but at the time it was a nightmare. I had a plan to get rid of them... prayer and anointing my entire apartment building with oil. I usually drug my best friend into my crazy adventures, so she helped me pray over my building and anoint it with oil. I expected the roaches to leave no later than a week.

A week passed and the roaches were still there. :( So, I thought, well maybe I'll just pray over and anoint my individual apartment unit. Weeks passed and the creepy critters were still there. I was standing on this verse that the roaches would leave, Galatians 3:13-14 (NKJV) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), ¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. No one had to convince me that the roaches living in my apartment were a curse, so I was standing on this verse that eventually they would have to go because Christ redeemed me from them. 

The people who lived in my apartment building were not as desperate to get the roaches in their apartments. This was not war for them, but I wasn't going to give up when it came to having the critters in my one bedroom corner of the ghetto. I took my battle plan to the next level and bought caulking to put in every crevice and corner the roaches might be coming through. I bought roach treatment spray and not only sprayed around my apartment, but once again walked around my apartment building, praying... and this time instead of anointing oil, I applied roach treatment spray. :) 

A friend offered to buy a little gadget that the commercials on TV promised would get rid of roaches. I was very grateful, but thought the best investment would be to buy something for ALL of my neighbors so we could knock out all the roaches in our building. Unfortunately on both sides of our building were large dumpsters, which meant more creepy critters. I purchased several bottles of Boric Acid, supposedly another gimmick that gets rid of roaches. I passed out bottles of it to all of my neighbors and even to the neighbors in the building next to mine. If we were going to get rid of these things, it was going to have to be a group effort! :) Surprisingly the Boric Acid didn't work. :( The uncleanliness of my neighbors didn't help the roach infestation. 

I had begun to periodically have night mares of roaches crawling on me during the middle of the night, and some times it wasn't just a nightmare. I was beginning to get discouraged, but still kept standing on the the verse in Galatians about being redeemed from the curse (of roaches). I continued keeping my apartment as clean as possible and in respectful ways encouraged my neighbors to try to keep their apartments clean. 

After about two and a half years of living there, I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and standing there before me where two men in blue uniforms, they were there to exterminate my apartment and every single apartment in the John DeShields neighborhood. They were instantly my heroes! When they told me that good news, I jumped up and down, began to cry and screamed, "Thank you Jesus!" They were looking at me like I was crazy. :) I told them my battle with the roaches and they told me the housing authority set up a contract with them for the next year or more to come exterminate every three to four months. Wow! What an answer to prayer! 

So, for my final years of living in John DeShields, I lived roach free. A few of them snuck in here and there, but for the most part, they were completely gone. I was so glad that God cared about me having a roach free apartment right there in the middle of the ghetto.