Happy Thanksgiving! In honor of today and all we have to be thankful for, I'd like to add another story from my friend Margo who travels to Rwanda. She travels because of the love of Jesus. The story she shared (below) was written by a young friend Marissa, who asks the question "Does love have a color?" It's a great, inspiring read.
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When I came into the sitting
room one afternoon, she was sitting motionless on the sofa looking straight
ahead, with her little legs sticking straight out in front of her. “Who is this little person?” I asked
myself. I had seen her in the house only
briefly since I had arrived at Pastor Stephen’s home in Rwanda three weeks before for a 6
½-week visit under the auspices of Hearts for the World International (HFTWI).
I learned she was the
3-year-old granddaughter of Grace and Jacki’s sister, Mary, and her name was
Marissa. I was hoping we could make a
connection, but she wanted nothing to do with me. In fact, one evening when she
was leaning over the edge of the loveseat to watch TV, I sat down at the other
end to see what she would do. Honestly,
if she could have moved any further away from me, she would have fallen off the
end of the loveseat!
Spoken language was not
going to be very useful, either.
Although I greeted her in Kinyarwanda, I learned her native tongue was a
Ugandan dialect, which I did not know at all.
She knew almost no English and very little Kinyarwanda, and my
Kinyarwanda was at a first-grade level.
She would come into the sitting
room every afternoon after her nap.
Unlike American children, she had no toys, books or games with her but instead
would play with the various doilies on the furniture or the errant threads or
ties on her clothing and be in her own world when the adults would engage in
conversation around her.
My heart went out to her and
I wanted things to be different for her, so I prayed about ways to bridge the
gap. It began with photos I took one
morning when she and the children’s nannies and household help were singing
along to praise music. Marissa was very
pleased with the photos.
Then I thought of using
pictures, and, though many will vouch that I am not a good artist, I drew a
picture of her and put her name by it.
When I showed it to her, a smile broke out on her face, and earlier that
day she had reached out to touch my hand to find out what white skin felt
like. That was a big step for her and
trust was building. When we said good
night that evening as she departed for Mary’s home, I spread my arms out wide, and
with just a little encouragement from her nanny, we shared a hug. I also learned to say “Marissa is a sweet
little girl” in Kinyarwanda.
Other things came to mind to
show her my love for her. I bought her a
slinky caterpillar, a toy just for her.
When it fell apart because it was given to the baby to play with, I must
admit I was jealous for Marissa, because this was her toy, something that was
to be her very own. If she wanted to
share, that would be a fine thing. She lives in a culture in which
so very much is shared, and I truly have no fault with that, but in my Western
mind I wanted her to have her own toy, too.
Then a new thought came to
me. I bought a book, a child’s first
ABC’s book with stickers to be pasted in by the English words and
pictures. That established a pattern.
Every afternoon that I was not away we had our book time. It was a time of sitting close and learning
together, of laughter and love shared, and she was a good little student. Every evening when it was time to say good
night, I would open my arms, and we would share a big hug and we also started
greeting each other that way.
One afternoon when she came
in, I was playing cards with two sweet girls, friends of Stephen’s boys. She spoke with them a bit sharply, and her
nanny told me that she said, “You cannot have her. She is my Margo.” Hmmmm.
So, what did little Marissa
remind me of and teach me? God finds
ways to bridge the gap between us and him, with his son, Jesus, being the
utmost gift of all. When we want nothing
to do with him, and I definitely did not at an earlier time in my life, he will
not give up seeking us and reaching out to us.
He very much wants to develop and maintain a personal relationship with
us. He wants to spend time with us, and
as we come to know him and love him, we, too, desire to spend more time with
him and want to know him more. He also is very patient, compassionate and creative
and he is our advocate and is jealous on our behalf. He watches out for us, wanting good
influences in our lives and not neglecting time with him with too many other
diversions, and his special book for us is the Holy Bible.
I am so thankful to God for
his abundance of gifts, and especially, the tremendous gift of his love. I am
so very thankful, too, for the special gift of a little girl named Marissa. When it came time to say good-by to her, my
tangible gift to her was her book, which I had been keeping in my room each day
for safe keeping. Marissa is now back in
her home in Uganda. I know that if we
meet again, and I certainly hope we will, that we will open our arms wide and
hug each other immensely. If that is not
to be, we shall do so in heaven. Even
more so, I know our arms will be open wide as we greet our Lord and he greets
us , when the time comes for each us who
call him our Savior and our Lord to go to our eternal home.
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