Soon after climbing out of the lori (truck), a little hand reached out for mine. Quietly she motioned for her little friend to take my other hand. We walked hand in hand to the temporary structure in Nyamula for the Friday Bible study. I tried asking them simple questions, but they were too shy to respond.
On one side of the structure, a tarp was laid out for the ladies and children to sit on. Benches were placed on the other side for the men.
As we sat down on the tarp, the kids all crowded around me. They sat as close as they could, some with their arms in my lap as they leaned onto me. The ones sitting behind me leaned their heads on my shoulders as we sang. Whether they could read or not, they wanted to “read” my song book.
It is times like this that make everything worth it – the loneliness, the discouragement …it can feel like people only want to get close to us for money, and some days those things are difficult to take. If I am not careful, I could drown in self-pity on those days.
But the Lord always puts days like this in to help show me His love.
This is the first village where the kids weren’t terrified of us. It feels so nice to have them surround us, instead of running away in terror. I think this may be because there are a few children with albinism in that village, so our whiteness isn’t as shocking.
There are still people in that village who haven’t seen a white person before, but I think they’re usually visitors from the Mozambique mountains.
The other week, Abigail went to pass a tract to a teen girl. Abigail knew that she couldn’t catch up to her, so cut her off on the path ahead. The girl turned and fled screaming in terror. Brother Shadrick yelled out that Abigail only wanted to give her a paper. The girl stopped and took it, but was still wary of her.
Most of the time now, we find it amusing and laugh, but it still feels so nice when kids are not afraid of us!
But whether lonely or loved, HE IS WORTHY!
Through the good times or hard times, may I be found faithful!
fromtheheartofmrsmissionary.com 