I had the privilege the day after Mother’s Day to honor these beautiful ladies at our Puyupungo church (We have service there on Monday’s.) I was almost certain that they had not been acknowledged on this special day and assuredly had not received any kind of gift for all their hard work and love. And just as I had thought, it was so. Some didn’t even know it was Mother’s Day. For them, it had just been another day of working in the garden with the machete, cooking over the open fire, washing clothes in the river, and taking care of the children.
So, on Monday, I had the privilege of honoring them and presenting them each with a box of chocolates! Oh, they were excited! In this beautiful photo with them (taken after church service), you may see just a ‘posed’ pic of these ladies, with a smile on their faces (that smile was priceless to me!) but I see beyond their smiles. I see their life. I know their pain behind that smile. I know that one will most likely be beaten by her husband when she gets home just for having come to church that day. She has 6 kids, no money, no family here, and there are no Shelters, but she has the Church. She laughs and talks and hugs us when she’s there. (She also has a key to our church and Sunday school room and can go anytime she wants to be safe). I know that another one of these precious ladies was ‘given away’ as a child to a man some 55 years older than her to be his ‘woman’. She is not allowed to ever leave the community, except only to come to the Church. To her, it is a big exciting event, even though the church is only about 2 miles from where she lives. But she giggles and smiles from the time I pick her up in the car, until I take her back home after service. For these women, the Church is their safe haven, it’s their Refuge. And here they feel loved and important and cared about.
I hope they know how much I love and admire them, and in reognizing them on Monday and giving them their small gift, that is exactly what I wanted to say, ‘YOU MATTER. YOU ARE LOVED. YOU MEAN SOMETHING TO SOMEONE!’
