Hello!
We are currently settled into our new home for the month: Mokhotlong, Lesotho! It is beautiful and very mountainous! It gets in the lower 40’s at night, but during the day it feels like fall and is usually in the 70’s, which makes up for the cold nights!
I really wanted to share about an amazing encounter that we had in Zambia, and my sweet team mate happened to write a blog on it before I did, so I will just share hers!
To check out more of her stories, head on over to her blog site: https://miacohen.theworldrace.org
We met Mary on the steps of a police station. She was sitting on a blue bench outside the station in a shirt adorned with dusty pink flowers. Her skin was covered in cracks and sores, her eyes were yellowed, and her posture was hopeless.
Tessie is the one who noticed her.
She greeted Mary in the traditional Bemba language, “muli shani (how are you)?” Instead of the typical “bwino (I am fine)” as a response, Bemba words poured from her mouth and tears from her eyes.
Let me tell you her story.
A mother of four, she left her home and travelled three hours away. There, she planned to live and work for two months in the maize fields of Mkushi for the promise of 300 Kwacha at the end of her labor (about $25 USD). For those two months, she worked from sunup to sundown, had nowhere to bathe, was rarely given food, and slept under a tree. She contracted malaria and had no contact with her family.
Then, at the end of her time, her employer loaded her into a truck and dropped her off in Serenje, still hours from her home and family.
They didn’t pay her.
They just left her.
This happens often in Zambia.
Four days had passed by the time we met Mary, and she had been sitting on that bench at the police station, praying that God would help here. Each day, she would journey from the hospital, where she slept outside, to the police station to to try to find a way home.
We didn’t know it yet, but God was about to use us to help His beloved daughter.
Tessie followed the promptings of the Lord, and advocated for us to spend our day helping Mary, so that’s exactly what we did. We were in a position to feed her, give her a place to bathe, and give her clean clothes to wear. Tessie went to the store and got ointment for the sores on her skin and medicine to treat her malaria, and I waited with her at the pastor’s house while she bathed.
By the time Tessie was back from the store, Mary looked like a new woman. Her skin was glowing, her hair was clean, and her new red and blue chitenge was flapping in the breeze (a chitenge is a traditional wrap skirt). The biggest change, though, was that her soul had been renewed; peaceful joy abounded and her eyes sparkled.
“I know God sees me. I know He hears me,” she said.
We walked Mary a few miles up the road to collect her things from the hospital and to find someone to take her home. Through the grace of God, Mary did not have to pay for her ride, and she was blessed with the 300 Kwacha that her employer never bothered to pay her. After a week or so, we received an update from a local pastor that Mary was home and with her family.
On this day, Tessie and I were merely vessels through which an Almighty God worked, but I learned a lot from the way Tessie loved and served Mary so well. I saw her care for Mary like Jesus would have. Like He does.
We tell you her story, not to bring glory to ourselves, but to Jesus, to the One who sees you and knows you and loves you. What a joy it is to live in humble service and grow in love alongside such an incredible God.
Until the Whole World Hears,
Mia
I am humbled at the words that Mia shared about me, but I must say, I give all credit to our God. He is the one who led me to see her. I prayed that morning for God to help me to see the unseen, the ones that society has forgotten about. Because all through scripture I’d been nothing that Jesus was interested in the invisible, so should we be? Mary was an answer to my prayers to simply be used by God, and it was an answer to Mary’s prayer to be seen and helped. For God closed the door to the plans that we had that day, only so a door could be opened for Mary. See, we weren’t supposed to see her that day, we were supposed to be somewhere else, BUT GOD. I share this story only to testify that GOD IS SO GOOD, and He hears our cries, He hears our voice! So don’t hesitate to ask, for He will answer.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” -Matthew 7:7
With love and thanksgiving, Tess
