After I decided to let my heart start softening my eyes were open to the people around me.
Our host adopted their niece because both her her parents had passed away, I think from some sort of accident. Mwaywa is their niece and she is nine years old. She is the sweetest little thing. I just fell in love with her… she completely melted my heart.
My team and I would cook our own dinners on a single wood burner outside… this is where Mwaywa and I began our friendship. Mwaywa spoke a limited amount of english but understood a good amount. She would just hang out with me outside. She had never seen a sunny side up egg so when I was cooking them she was so interested. I had her help me crack all the eggs and she loved it. From that point on we were friends.
One Sunday morning 12 of us all piled into this 5 passager baby car. Mwaywa and I were crammed into the trunk she was nusseled under my arm and practically sitting on my lap. She grabbed my hand and held it the whole car ride her other hand was just resting on my leg. While we were sifting there she just closed her eyes and I thought she had fallen asleep but my friend nudged me and I looked down and tears were just strimming down her face. She was completely silent and her eyes were closed but tear were just falling….
This little one is 9 years old and has experienced a tremendous amount of loss. 6 months earlier her parents passed. She was uprooted and moved to a new city. She has endured so much hardship at such a young age. When I saw those tears my heart stopped and just sank with pain. I have no words just a broken heart. My thoughts went to maybe her mom use to hold her the way I was in the car… I dont know what the tear were from but she held tightly to my hand and just nuzzled into my arm.
We never know what people are truly going through but sometime just being present helps soften the hard times. Most often we do not know the role we play in other people’s lives but we trust that God has a purpose for each moment and we have faith that he will take care of the unknown. We are called to love and love takes on many forms.
-V
