My Favorite Photo

As I type this, Mozambique is having terrible flooding.  Our friends in Marracuene and Manesa are alright but Ernesto has had surgery on one of his feet which has made him bed ridden for many days. I ask for your prayers for all of them, especially Ernesto’s full recovery.

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This is my favorite photo from Africa.  I am utterly selfish in this fact but it is my favorite.  Let me give you the “story”.

This hug is from Elijah, on Christmas Day.  He was digging holes for the polls that had large pieces of material tied together and formed a canopy, there we had shade from the hot African Sun.  I was trying desperately to reach my family as it was very early Christmas morning back in the US.  The moment was just right and he stopped to breathe, I took a photo of him from my phone. We shared a hug.  I had no idea someone shot this photo until January when I downloaded them from Lorraine’s computer.  To my surprise, there was this shot of us.

Some history on why Elijah is so important to me.  First, the Lord spoke to me one morning and told me to hug him.  I blew it off. We were all busy and that teenage boy did not need a hug from some white woman !    But the “thought” lingered and nagged at me until I decided that it was, in fact,  God.  Then I could not find Elijah anywhere.  Every morning he greeted us with a big wave and an even bigger smile, now he was missing. I gave up and went on about my day.  Before long he was back with that big smile from across the choir – I purposed my steps to go give him a hug.  When I got to him I simply opened my arms and he folded up like an infant boy.  I held him for a long time and he just received the love from me like a sponge.  His smile was different when we parted, he really did need that hug.

Then, later Christmas Day, Lorraine chose him in our group meeting to be the one to do something with a small piece of wire that she had.  For those of you who do not know Lorraine she is unpredictable in this way.  The Holy Spirit moves on her and the rest of us say “what?”.  Well, we all just went with it when she handed him that wire and then went on with the rest of her preaching and teaching.  Later on she told him to come forward and show what he had made.  Glasses. I tiny pair of glasses.  For some unknown reason I began to cry.  See, those that we met in Africa live each day in the harshness of living.  There is not much hope in their eyes of ever having anything more or different.  Then there is this boy who envisioned glasses, instruments that help you see better and more clearly.  The thought that this was in his creative mind made me cry.  What I would love is for him to come here and learn English, go to college and then go home and help his country prosper.

I miss him more than the other children.  There was something in his eyes that captured me, maybe it is because I have a son his age.

Please pray for him and all of the others that are there, I do not know when or if I will ever be able to return as my heart yearns to do.