|
They are such a blessing.
I
was in the kitchen cooking. It was already 7:00 pm. I had just
gotten home from Wednesday Bible Activities. I was in a hurry to
feed my hungry family. I grabbed up to a nail above to reach my cutting
board. It slipped out of my hands and fell, splitting in two.
It was my grandmother’s old cutting board, more than 50 years old, a daily
reminder of all she was to me, and it was split in two. I could have
cried. At just that second, Sandy walked into the kitchen.
These volunteers of ours here at Betikara are resourceful as well as caring.
They look out for the Betikara lambs with hearts overflowing with the desire
to love and help. They look out for us too, and they combine their
love with their resourcefulness in surprising ways.
Sandy managed it. She got Barry and Kit to keep the secret.
She got Havilah to keep the secret and that is no easy feat. She
even got 20 lambs to keep the secret while together they worked on a surprise
for me.
Sandy went to the open market and searched down a Malagasy hand cut and
sanded cutting board. She searched high and low for appropriate paints
and even managed to fool me when she was forced to ask me where to find
acrylic paint in a variety of colors.
She chose the budding artist of the Betikara lambs and asked him to draw
a picture of Aunt Stacy and some lambs on this hunk of wood. She
chose another lamb to draw border flowers around the edges of the wood.
And the greatest feat of all was stilling her nerves while the other lambs
squeezed in and dabbed paint onto this masterpiece of a cutting board.
When her nerves got the better of her, she carried the board home and finished
painting it herself. I don’t know how she did it, but she varnished
it three times in my house right under my nose and I never smelled a thing.
She took it back to the center, had the children wrap it in a piece of
green tablecloth, and guided them in presenting it to me for no special
reason at all.
When I pointed to the person drawn on the board and asked who it was, they
all shouted, “That’s you Tantine (Auntie!)”
I pointed to the lambs and said, “Who?” They shouted even louder,
“The lambs are us!”
“And what is this?” I asked as I pointed to a bird.
“That’s the holy spirit!”
They did it just because they loved me. They are all such a blessing,
volunteers and lambs alike. The volunteers come with hearts ready
to love and they teach the kids how to love too.
My beautiful new cutting board,
just because they loved me.
The Big Test
School is not quite over for the lambs. Most of them are already
on vacation, but the seven who are taking the test to qualify for entry
into junior high have worked extra hard this last month of the big push.
They’ve dragged in every afternoon at 5:00 pm. They look peaked and
ragged. They beg to go out to the land and work with their hands
for a change. They are full of big sighs. They get about ten
minutes rest and then the caregiver in charge of their schooling rounds
them up and begins the evening tutoring session.
I feel for them. They have worked hard and even if they don’t pass,
I know they have given it their best effort. A few days ago I promised
them cake if they passed. Their eyes opened as wide as they could
get and huge smiles broke out, but I squelched it just as quickly as I
jokingly said, “You pass and you get cake, you fail and you’ll be
hungry.” I was kidding though. Even before I punctuated that
statement with a firm not of my head I knew that they all deserved cake
and I would see that they get it.
They took the test last Monday but they have to wait two more weeks for
the test results. These kids are competing island wide and the tests
are checked by a special committee before we know if they will be moving
on to junior high next year. In the meantime, they can breathe a
sigh or relief and get down to the business of playing for a change.
I head to the center this afternoon. The test ended yesterday,
and I plan to give each one of them the biggest hugs I can muster.
I’ll give them hugs for you too. Please pray as the committee grades
the tests and decides which students get to move forward. Come next
newsletter, I will have a complete report on how all the Betikara scholars
have done this school year. Beginning in July it’s out to the land
two days a week for gardening and loads of fun!
Irma is coming back
The news became official just two weeks ago. Irma, our three month
volunteer, who came in January and stayed until April, is on her
way back and arrives on August 9th to give one and possibly two more years
of love to the lambs. The lambs screamed for joy at that news and
we screamed too. Welcome back, Irma! We can’t wait to catch
you off that plane.
Another volunteer
The lambs will have yet another volunteer who will join with Sandy, who
is already on the spot, for five weeks of summer gardening and fun.
We welcome Angela Schellenberg from Winnepeg, Canada. She has a heart
for helping children. She found our webpage and she wrote and asked
if she could come. We are happy to welcome her and you too.
We have loads of love and fun to share and we never forget to share the
Savior too. Come on down! |
