Sometimes God gives you glimpses of back home while you’re on the race. They all look different, but sometimes you just know what He wants to tell you when He shows these little flashbacks.
I taught preschool before coming on the race, and I absolutely loved it. It was a hard job to leave.
I loved hearing children’s laughter all day, singing and dancing around the classroom, and being able to spend time with the children who I got to watch grow day by day.
If you know me back home, then you know my little side-kick, Hunter. He started out just being another kid I had the privilege to spend every day with, but our relationship grew like I couldn’t have imagined.
Hunter is special needs. He started in my class when he was 2 ½ and he is now almost 5 years old. He doesn’t speak, but he uses a little bit of sign language….but only when he feels like it, he’s a little stubborn. Everyone at the preschool knew that he was my boy, even the kids, and his momma even joked about me being his girlfriend. So needless to say, he was one of the hardest goodbyes before leaving back in January. And He is one of those I miss the most.
Sometimes I think of how he’s grown and wonder about the new things he has learned over the past 8 months.
Hunter carries a washcloth with him where ever he goes. He chews on it. He drools on it. It’s become a part of him.
So today, we headed to our care point around 10 am like usual. When we got there, there were tons of kids. There were more than I remember there being the week prior. They were all outside playing on the playground. We soon discovered that there were no teachers, and the younger teenagers were cooking all the children breakfast.
With no teachers, we had no direction, so we just played with the children. I noticed a kid lying down in the sand. I walked over to him and as I approached him I asked him if he was sleepy. As I said the word “sleepy” I tilted my head to the side and put both my hands under it….you know, just in case he didn’t know what I was saying. As I was doing this, I saw out of the corner of my eye another little boy. He started to crawl up the hill towards where I was. He came up and signed “sleepy”, just like I had shown the other boy. As he did this I noticed he was holding a green washcloth in his hands. I sat down and then he did too, and he then laid his head on my lap. When I got up he did too, and took my hand and stayed with me for the rest of the day. He would sign “sleepy” every once in a while just to make sure that I was paying attention to him.
This boy’s name is Thabani (Taban). He is 10 years old. He doesn’t talk. The teacher later told me that he goes to the school for the “deaf and dumb” that isn’t even close to where his parents lived, and he stayed there most of the time and was home because the children are on holiday.
He reminded me of my boy back home.
He reminded me so much of Hunter.
I’ve been missing home a lot lately. I guess it’s from the lack of internet or the fact that I can actually picture myself going home for the first time since the beginning of the race. The end is becoming more visible every day.
I really love the way that Gods works. I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s true.
He reminded me of my favorite person back home, but he also reminded me of why I’m on the race.
There are Hunters all over the world.
