Sweet Melissa

heidi and i were headed to our first day of Bible storying at okari. just before we reach the church, we stop at the borehole to greet a friend. then a little girl walks our way and says she was told to direct us to a house nearby where coming-out prayers were being held for a newborn baby girl. 

so in true moru fashion, we go with the flow and follow her down the path. as heidi and i switch from moru to arabic, we are confused when they tell us there are two babies. “twins?!” we ask, and they explain again that two women, from the same compound, each had a baby girl a few days apart. 

moru tradition is to hold prayers 4 days after the birth of a baby girl (3 days for a boy). so, today we would have prayers for the first girl, then a few days later would be prayers for the other baby.

we arrived to see many of our friends from okari. we felt better about postponing Bible storying since most of our participants were there, and we were happy to be a part of such a special day with them.

the younger women were busy fetching water and preparing food. grandmothers stretched their legs on a large mat with the children. leaders of the church sat in chairs in a circle. and we all gathered on this large, well-swept compound, under the shade of a tree. 

vida opened us up with a sermon from mark 10 about Jesus and the little children. we sang the moru version of blessed assurance, prayed, and took up offering. then it was time to see the baby!

heidi and i stand with the women as they literally lift up the baby girl in prayer. then they ask the baby’s name... nyobili melissa :)  my namesake!

inside the mud hut, i greet the mother, abao, who was one of our english class regulars. she hands over sweet melissa, and i marvel at such a precious sight as i rub her tiny fingers. 

we continue the day with a meal and talk about south sudan’s independence day, which was on july 9th. heidi asks if anyone went for tribal dancing, and they all point to one of the oldest ladies sitting with us! i hope i’m that old and still going to dance parties :) we all laugh together as they begin to show us the dance styles of different tribes. one looks like a shuffle, another jumping, and one dance is all in the shoulders. 

they ask what our cultural dancing is like. heidi and i look at each other in amusement and explain that most young people in america don’t know the traditional dances of their ancestors. but we decided to entertain them with a demonstration of the waltz to give them an idea :)

a few days pass, and heidi and i head to the same compound with the same people. we read the same scripture and sing the same song. but now we have prayers for another little girl, a cousin to baby melissa. we lift her up in prayer, and when they ask for the name, they say “heidi.” :)

baby melissa and baby heidi will grow up as cousins and hopefully friends. and though it’s unlikely they will have a relationship with their father, we pray that they will grow up to be strong little ladies who know their heavenly Father. 

so happy the Lord changed our plans today. what a special blessing to share with our community.

I'm Into Something Good

i’m teaching preschool again!  

unlike most preschools, this new “model preschool” has the advantage of their own building, with walls to put up letters and visuals aids for teaching, and each child has a chair. 

boda is a teacher from uganda, sent here to help start this preschool that will hopefully add on more grade levels. though the original plan was to have fewer children in each class, boda was left to manage 2 combined classes when the other teacher left. she now teaches more than 50 children in this small room. and let me say this lady was born for teaching preschoolers. she’s confident, energetic and loving, and seems to have a song up her sleeves at all times. 

being drawn to boda and her preschool, i wondered how i could support her and began to pray for the Lord’s direction. of course, i would love to spend time in a preschool again, but was this where God was leading me? turns out, my desires seemed to be in tune with the Lord’s, but he knew the big picture and had a much bigger purpose in mind.

so i began teaching a lesson once a week in boda’s class. as the children would break for lunch, boda and i engaged in good conversation, getting to know each other better. she began to vent about the struggles of being here in south sudan. many things are not what she thought they would be, she is lonely and misses her family, and often wonders why she is here. hmm... sounds familiar! i can totally relate. 

i had prayed about opportunities to share God’s love with boda and weave the gospel into our conversations. and it seemed like a great time to encourage her in truth. we later prayed together, and she sent me off with a big thank you, telling me how thankful she was to have me there. 

so the next week, same story. she shared more and more, though this time i was surprised when she told me she was a muslim. and i begin to see the Lord, indeed, had this thing rigged.

it’s interesting that boda and i have so many things in common. we’re both preschool teachers, who left our family to come to a place that is needy, unfamiliar, and just hard. we both get frustrated and lonely and wonder why we’re here. but, boda doesn’t share my same hope in Christ. could the Lord have a purpose in bringing two unsuspecting preschool teachers together in south sudan? i believe so.

God is so faithful. so often i’m stepping forward wondering if this is really the right way, asking God to direct me but worried i’ll miss it completely. it’s neat to see some pieces of the puzzle revealed every now and then.