All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

It is late and I should be sleeping. But, after what just happened, I feel compelled to write instead.

This past week was bad. I will be the first to admit it…there was nothing funny about it, it was just plain bad! When I got home after being drenched in the torrential rains, and having narrowly escaped sure death on the river, I got sick. The girls then took this opportunity to have behavior problems…and I am talking severe behavior problems! They don’t seem to do anything half way. I raised my share of kids in my lifetime, and they never even approached the level of intensity that these girls get to!

Yesterday was a horrible day right from the start. One little one was having a really bad attitude, and in the afternoon, I finally confined her to her bed to think things over. Well, if she was thinking, they were not all that good of thoughts considering the look on her face. It was anything but happy. I kept praying. Towards evening, I saw her little face soften somewhat and then look pensive, and then sad. When I called her over for evening worship, she came bouncing to me, cuddled up close, and asked if we could sing, “My Jesus I Love Thee”. Tears came to my eyes. I think that God knew that I needed that tiny bit of encouragement just then.

If I thought that my trials were over, I was dead wrong. Today was even worse. My girls started the day out wrong, and I felt like I could not take any more. I had gone up to the kitchen and found it in a deplorable condition. Since I had been sick, I had not been checking it like I normally do. I have spent hours and hours teaching the girls how to take good care of the kitchen, and how to keep it neat and clean, even out here in the jungle. Evidently they had completely forgotten those lessons. When I walked in, fruit flies billowed up from forgotten refuse, the stench of unwashed dishes met my nose, and food was distributed across the floor. I couldn’t help it; I burst into tears and fled to my room in the other house. Although I am normally a roll-with-the-punches type of person, this was just too much for me to take. I grew up in a spotless home, and I like it that way. It would not bother me if I could just get in there and clean it up, but with my back injury, it means incredible pain to even do a few dishes since everything is on the ground.

It didn’t take long before my two littlest girls found me crying on my bed. They cuddled up beside me and just sat and patted me for a while. Then Hannah looked up at me, tried to wipe away my tears and asked me, oh so gently, what was wrong. I reached for some pictures that I keep beside my bed of my parent’s immaculate, beautiful home, and I went through all of them with my little girls. I showed them how nice and clean everything was, and how there was no food on the floor, or dirty dishes anywhere. They got quite enthusiastic about it and decided that they want our home to be just like that. I smiled…but it just made me more homesick.

The girls were good the rest of the day. God sent me some sunshine, which I have not seen in weeks. My solar panel likes sunshine, so we were able to watch a few uplifting videos and listen to some good music, which also helps me a lot.

But, it wasn’t until this evening that God gave me exactly what I needed. I was tired and emotionally exhausted. I just wanted to go to bed, and I still wanted to just go back to America and forget the dirty jungle, when Memewah came and sat down on my bed. She was in a chatty mood, and I was not. I almost told her to go to bed right away, but something kept me from doing it. So, as much as I didn’t want to, I sat and listened. I cannot repeat all of it word for word since she talked for an hour, but I will just tell you the things that I can remember.

“Mommy, wasn’t today a beautiful day? Jesus sent us sun today so that we could watch our videos. That was nice of Him to do it on a Sabbath, wasn’t it? Did you know Mommy, that sometimes when it is dark, I pray to Jesus, and then I sit and listen really quietly, and He talks to me. Jason told me he would do that. I didn’t know about Jesus being able to talk to me before, but He does and He is really nice. He tells me how to be good. Did you know that you cannot get away from Jesus? He knows everything. If I run as fast as I can to town, Jesus runs with me. If I hide in the jungle, Jesus hides with me. If I go swimming, Jesus swims with me. (This brought a funny mental picture to my mind) There isn’t any place that I can go that Jesus does not know about. Jesus is really big too. I saw a picture, and there were people standing on Jesus’ hands. He is really big, isn’t he Mommy? He can lift that rock above the house! I can’t lift it. Jesus is really strong. Oh, and He is making me a….what do you call it…a house made of yellow color…oh, a mansion just for me! It is really pretty too. I saw a picture of that in the bible story book. It is always a beautiful day in heaven. And, Jesus never gets tired, does he Mommy?…”

This is what the entire, hour long conversation, was like. How on earth am I supposed to be discouraged after that? This is a little girl who would not have known Jesus at all if God hadn’t brought her to us. OK…so I still don’t like filth, but I can’t leave my little girls. Not for all the clean houses in the world. After all, like she said, in heaven Jesus has a beautiful house built just for me. And I bet it will be super clean!