But!  I’m not writing today about Rivo being sick or being spared, or even being baptized.  Today, I have another precious story to share about Rivo.  

 “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.”

                                                                                                                        Proverbs 31:20

            I remember how relieved I felt when we finally knew that Rivo would survive the miscarriage and the bleeding ulcer that almost killed her.  I remember her family thanking us over and over again for her life.  I remember both Barry and I telling them each time that God spared her life, not us, and that they should be thanking Him and bowing to Him in obedience.  I even remember Rivo’s husband promising that he would come to worship and learn what he must do to obey God.   Rivo did just that as soon as she got better.  Her husband did not, and since Rivo’s baptism her life hasn’t gotten any easier.  Her spirit, or His Spirit in her, has soared over the months. 
            Rivo is faithful to worship and she brings her six small boys along with her.  My heart aches for her though.  She’s still so thin and obviously undernourished.  It’s been a year and a half since she was sick but still she holds her head a bit stiff as if she fights off a constant headache.  In this winter weather she comes to worship barefoot and in thin ragged dresses.  We’ve given her clothes before but have never seen her wear them.  I often wonder if they are sold to provide other needs.  She brings a meager dish of rice with a very small fish on top to share at fellowship meals, and she stands for hours before the sink insisting on washing dishes after the fellowship meal to the very last dish.  She attends women’s class with few words to say and with always a smile on her face, but when she does speak it is with God’s wisdom. 
            Last Sunday morning, Rivo walked into the room of the orphanage where the church meets.  I was dressed in four layers of clothing and was shivering.  Rivo had on a thin white skirt, a t-shirt, and no shoes.  She had a thin sweater on and it was stretched over her youngest child who was also scantily clad.  She sat down next to me.
            “Tantine (Auntie, they all call me that), I have two things that I need to talk to you about,” she said.  We had already shook hands and kissed cheeks (the typical Malagasy greeting).  I was anticipating and expecting to hear what she needed.  
            “First,”  she said, “I am very concerned about the little girl from Comoros (a group of islands near Madagascar but not a part of Madagascar).  What is the problem now?  Why hasn’t she come to live at the orphanage yet?  What can I do to help get her here?”
            It was Rivo who first pointed us to the little girl of Comorian parents who was abandoned at birth in Madagascar.  The Malagasy women who has taken care of her for eleven years is dying and Rivo wanted to see the child helped before the woman died.  Government workers have been asking for bribes which we can’t pay or we would be accused of buying children.  A month ago, we thought we had it all worked out and finally went to stand before the judge to finish the final paperwork.  The judge was sick that day and rescheduled a whole month later.  I assured Rivo that we were in the final stages and were doing all we could.
            “But, what can I do?” was Rivo’s question.  I just smiled and hugged her assuring her that the Father would make sure the little girl reached the orphanage.  I asked her to pray.  Rivo had another question though.  I waited to hear what she needed and was glad that I didn’t ask, only thought about it, for yet again Rivo was operating with God’s wisdom.  She wasn’t thinking of herself at all.
            “Do you see those small children across the aisle?”  as she described them.  “They live in our village and are very very poor. I was wondering if the orphanage children’s old clothes could be given to them.”
            I sat stunned.  Her own child was barefoot and had no jacket in this cool weather.  They were sharing one thin sweater and they were both shivering.  I doubt if either of them had more than a small bowl of plain rice porridge for breakfast, but Rivo had found someone poorer than herself and she was trying to help meet their needs.   
            That’s serving in the finest sense of the Word and I was humbled.  I just nodded at Rivo.  I couldn’t trust my voice to words.  And, I smiled, wondering if she knew what special blessings were coming her way from the Father because she was sacrificing instead of asking.  We have a habit in our family when we pray.  We try always to ask for spiritual needs and trust God to provide the physical needs for ourselves.  This time, I am asking for God to send physical blessings, not on me, but on Rivo and family, that she be more convinced than ever that a sacrifice and a service to another is always noticed and blessed by the Father.  

            “ ‘Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty,  ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”                  Malachi 3:10  
 

• Pray for the Comorian child that needs to be placed in the Betikara Orphanage.  Pray that we can get the paperwork that is still needed from the local government offices.
• Pray for Rivo and her family as they continue to seek His way in their lives.  Pray that Rivo’s husband can change his life and put it in the hands of the Savior.
• Pray that more of the Malagasy people can have a heart like the heart of Rivo’s.  Pray that they can give them self in service to others and think of others needs before their needs as Rivo has so willing done in her life.
• Pray for the Rosie family as we adjust to the start of another school year and being separated from Kit.