In the country of Botswana there is a town called Shakawe on the Okavango Delta. Across the delta, 19 miles from Shakawe there is a village called Ngarange. In Ngarange there are about 2,500 residents. There is a primary school, a handful of small stores called Tuck Shops, a big water tank with a red dial that indicates how much water is left, seemingly endless donkeys and goats, and many small homes. These homes are not very diverse in appearance. The homes that are concrete are mostly painted a pale pink color. The other more common homes are mud huts. Small, round, grey huts with roofs made of reeds collected from the river. They’re quaint, not much larger than 12-15 feet in diameter, and generally only have one door, no windows.
In Ngarange there’s a mud hut that looks a lot like the others. It’s surrounded by a reed fence and a has a gate made of old wood planks. It blends in with the huts and fences around it, you would walk by it and not know that there is anything special about it. This particular hut has some alluring green leafy vines growing over the roof. It’s like an indication that there is blossoming, beautiful life there. From the outside, this little hut looks like it is from a fairy tale.
It makes sense because inside of this little hut is one of the Father’s princesses. Her name is Ntusong She’s about 21 years old. Her smile lights up more than just that small hut. Her laugh keeps you smiling, which keeps her laughing. Her spirit it joyous. Since birth, Ntusong has been paralyzed and only has limited mobility in her right arm and neck. Her mother, who loved her dearly, passed away when she was 5 years old. She lives with a relative. She sleeps, eats, and spends each day on some blankets on the ground. The hut is dark. For the majority of every day she lays alone. She’s a determined woman and insists on feeding herself. Outside of that one action, however, there is not much more she can do on her own.
Before our hosts Paula and Maggie found her, very few people knew she was living like this, which means the harsh reality is that very few people knew she was alive at all.
The victorious reality is that, even though the community may not have been aware of who she was, she’s never been unknown or unseen by the Father. We may go to visit her, knowing that the Spirit goes with us. We can fill her water bottle and bring her soft porridge. We can sing to her and stroke her hair. But my hope and confidence rests in knowing that the presence of the Lord was there before us and stays long after us. It rests in knowing that the Lord can fill her more than physical food and water can. It rests in knowing that the Lord can provide her with lasting joy instead of temporary moments of laughter.
She is physically alone all day every day. My heart aches a little each time we walk out that door and I put as much joy into my “Ooseame” (Satswana for goodbye) as I can when in reality just want to break down and beg the Lord for answers as to why she has to live the life she is living in the conditions over which she has no power.
Our hosts pray with such confidence over Ntusong. They believe that they will one day be able to rescue her from her physical circumstances; that she will have a better place to stay and be not only kept alive by her caregivers but loved and known by them too. They dream that she will be able to eat food more nutritious than soft porridge and that one day she will stand, walk, run, and dance freely.
It is when they pray the words “but, Lord, we believe that that is already done in the spirit” that I regain my hope in eternity. It is in those words that I remember the promises in Revelation 21 of a new heaven and a new earth, free from tears and pain. In the presence of the Father, Ntusong will stand, walk, run, and dance freely. That is done and sealed in spirit because scripture promises it.
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Psalm 8:3-9
Those words are about you, they’re about me, and they’re about Ntusong.
The Lord has made Ntusong a little lower than the angels and crowned her with glory and honor.
The Lord has made Ntusong a ruler over the works of his hands.
With that truth resounding in my ears, I cannot walk up to that little hut with green ivy growing over it and think that this girl has been forgotten. People may walk by every day and not know she’s there. If I had never come from my comfortable home in Virginia I wouldn’t have ever known about her existence.
But the Lord has always known right where she is; he knows everything about her. He loves her laugh and her smile. He calls her worthy, beautiful and valued. His heart breaks for the realities of our fallen world, but he too knows that Ntusong will stand, walk, run, and dance freely with him in eternity one day.
