This was written on Monday, September 15, 2014. Before I start, I want to clarify that this was not written to exalt me in any way, but to share how God is working in my life and the lives of others. All glory to Him who is good and faithful 🙂
________________________________________________________________
Today, I fell in love. No joke. With a five year old deaf boy named Moses. I saw him, and I knew we were going to have a connection. We were there to build a trench around his house so it would stop flooding, but my day started with playing peekaboo from a distance, and then finding a ball to play with him. He was super shy at first, so I asked Heather (our host) to teach me a few words of sign language to warm him up. Eventually he decided he’d play with me, and we kicked a ball back and forth for a while.
I was talking to Heather about Moses when the kids were playing, and he was abandoned by his mother at birth because of the abnormalities, and by the Nove tribe when he was 2 and found to be deaf. The Nove tribe is the biggest indigenous tribe in Panama, but they think that deafness is a curse. It’s considered another mouth to feed when they can’t work, since they won’t take the time to educate him.
Not only was Moses born with deafness, but he also has a rare skin condition that leaves open sores all over his body. Hands, feet, back, scalp, and the worst was on his legs and feet. Heather told me she puts medicine on him when she comes, and I instantly felt the Spirit tell me to ask if I could do it. Mind you, I’m grossed out by scabs and puss and oozing, but it didn’t even cross my mind. I got my water bottle and she handed me a bar of soap, and you should’ve seen his face when Heather told him I was going to wash his sores and put medicine on. You would’ve thought he’d seen a ghost he was so confused. Apparently, no one other than Heather, his family, and nurses has ever cleaned him.
It took almost a half hour to wash his skin off and put Neosporin on all the wounds. I felt so much love for this little boy and it was incredible. He would point to all the sores that hurt and then smile every time I would put medicine on it. I legitimately almost started crying at how happy he was to be getting attention and loved on. After he was washed (still ridiculously dirty and smelly) he took my hand to show me “his baby”. (He loves little babies) I started doing the manual labor stuff that we were there to do, and he kept on coming up to me. Towards the end I saw that the kids around him were ignoring him and he looked so sad, so I went over and taught him to high five and he would mimic my hands for patty cake. It was adorable.
I went over by the other kids playing soccer, and he came over and took my hand again, and then put his arms up so I picked him up. I was carrying him around and Heather looked really confused, so I was like what’s wrong? And she goes, he doesn’t let anyone pick him up….and he asked me to pick him up! It was so crazy amazing.
God is so, so good. I feel like I got a glimpse of how God feels about the “least of these”. This is a boy who was abandoned for deafness and a skin disease, who no one wants to touch or acknowledge, and he just wants to be loved. I can’t wait to see him again (hopefully) this week. It was the coolest experience I’ve ever had. I’ve loved on kids before, but I’ve never loved a kid like that. Even hours later, I’m still thanking God that I had this opportunity, and that He’s given me a chance to love on someone like Jesus did.
This hopefully won’t be the last blog about Moses, but enjoy the pictures and video!
God bless,
Jenna
