A PATH thru her HEART........

Orpah was seldom part of the sometimes up to fithteen children outside our home in the afternoon... waiting to come inside and play with Melika`s toys. Every day after school she would sit in the field across our home gaurding her familie`s cow graizing in the grass. She became a familliar sight daily as I would often watch her thru the window. There was something about her that touched my heart. Maybe it was because she did not come like the other kids did, or just her neglected, peaceful look that stirred my mother heart. She was often dressed in old, ragged clothes, for sure hand me downs and visibly dirty hands and feet. I felt sorry for her....and wondered how I could be of meaning to this dear girl......

One day I got the bright idea to teach her to do cross stich then she could sit and work on that while watching the cow. Armed with a needle, material, pattern and bright coloured thread I walked across the field. She immediately stole my heart with her gentle kind way....but not being a pushover! She became a delightful part of our family. She saw Melika take her first steps, Talitha being brought home to CA as a tiny three months old baby and often the best and worst of me.....

Thru our joys, sickness, hardships and sadness Orpah was there and a very good friend, daughter and sister to us all. Etienne got a really bad case of hepatitis when I was five months pregnant with Talitha. We often feared and battled for his life during this time. Faithfully she came every afternoon to help me with what she could. Like the time when she chopped wood for our wood stove and misjudged the distance between her thumb and the axe......the result was the head of her thumb hanging on a piece of skin. Talk about trauma and her fainting on me with blood all over.

She had a deep love and respect for Etienne. During the worst time of his hepatitis with Him laying there deadly ill, she would go and sit on a chair in the room with him and watch the Jesus film in her language. Him doing it for language study and her being deeply stirred by the story of Jesus. How many times they watched it I stopped counting. After one of these times she had tears rolling down her face. Etienne asked her why she was crying. *I don`t know....* she answered. He prayed the sinners prayer that afternoon with her. Immediately after the prayer there was a significant change in her face...like a soft light beaming from her. She was changed and ruined for the ordinary! We send her home that night with mixed feelings... a Bible in her language and encouraged her to tell her family what happened.

She became a good friend and we would often pray for one another, situations and other people and work on various projects together. Not fully realising then that I was discipling Orpah to be a mother, house keeper, cook, wife and loving Jesus and her neighbours and fully being who Jesus made her to be.

She did not have an easy life at home with a harsh mother and verbally abusing father. She would often come to our home discouraged and depressed. I became desperate as I felt overwhelmed with my own life demands, pressures and family and then her walking around with a long face. God knew where He was going with this. I often prayed with her for hope and encouragment. Then one day again we talked about God being our hope and encourager, the One that lifts our depressed souls and strengthens our hearts. The One that speaks life into the situations that brings death to our hearts. Being that inner gentle Voice that whispers those words that changes our lifes for ever..

She burst into the door the next day smiling and talking excitedly, I could hardly keep up with what she was trying to tell me. She told me that normally when her father lashes out at her she would go and sit in the pit toilet far in the corner of their yard crying. It again happened the night before. She went to hide in the toilet and cry her heart out...but this time it was different. She asked God to speak encouragement to her desperate state of mind and hurting heart. She excitedly told me how she asked Him what He had to say. *I love you Orpah* She felt a soft whisper in her heart. It stripped away all the pain, guilt, depression and discouragement. She knew then how to find living water that brings life...

She became not only my dear friend but my daughter that lives in Central Asia. When we moved to another country..... the hardest part for me was leaving her behind.....We sometimes thru the years following had contact by e mail and even the odd telephone conversation....Lately we were not being able to make contact....But I know she will be OK! She knows, loves and serves Jesus with her whole heart...She knows how to open her heart and soul to His soft gentle voice that speaks words of life....in moments when all else screams death.... WHAT MORE.....THAN THIS DO I WANT MY OWN DAUGHTERS TO KNOW?