See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” —John 3:1 NIV
This is the first blog post I have written for MAF as a mom… so seems appropriate I would write about an experience involving my new daughter, Wyleigh Relebohile (Lebo). Recently we joined another MAF family, the Youngs and made a visit to Katse, a village in the mountains of Lesotho. We were going to give the Youngs exposure to village life and to stay with and encourage some friends of mine, Jim & Teresa Flora, who are missionaries there with their three daughters. The Floras had arranged a full schedule for us that would begin after we had lunch… but then, plans changed.
Teresa took Lebo and me with her to respond to an urgent need, while Jim and the Youngs set out to visit a small nearby village as planned. Lebo and I jumped in Teresa’s truck along with a translator and one of Teresa’s teammates, Leah. On the drive down, Teresa explained to us the reason for our sudden change of plans. A seven-year old child, I’ll call her M, had been sexually assaulted by her own father. She was taken to a hospital by her village’s Chief to be examined, and we were on our way to pick them up and find a safe place for M to stay. I hugged Lebo a little closer as Teresa’s words hung in the silence… I know rape is common in Lesotho, far too common; but now I was coming face to face with it and so was my newly adopted three-year-old daughter.
We arrived at the hospital an hour later and loaded M and the Chief into the truck to make the drive back up the mountain. M had a radiant smile and showed no signs of mistrust as she climbed into a car full of women she’d never seen, most of whom were white-skinned. It was mind-blowing how resilient she seemed to be. Almost immediately M and Lebo began to flirt, and then chatter, and eventually they played. I went from being nervous for what Lebo might be exposed to, to being incredibly grateful she was there. Lebo was in every way a minister of the Gospel that day. She immediately accepted and showed love to M in the way only a child could. It was my first glimpse into serving God together as mother and daughter.
I’m excited to see how God will continue to use us to shine His light in the dark—bringing the hope and love of Jesus to those who desperately need to know Him.
##
M has been granted a foster family who know Jesus and who want desperately to adopt her and to love her. We are praying with them that M will understand she has a heavenly Father who deeply loves her. Please join us in praying for M.
