A friend...

So, I think I might be making a friend! I mean, other than the American missionaries, that is. Remember I wrote about Faviola and Brenda? Well, I'm really enjoying the time I get with both of them, but right now especially Faviola, mainly because I don't see Brenda quite as frequently. She is busy being a mommy! Faviola and I try to converse some, and though I only understand about half of what she's telling me, and even though I can say even less than that back to her right now, there seems to be a connection there that is very precious. It's hard being away from all your friends and family and being in another country with their unfamiliar culture and customs and food and language and ways of doing things. So, to find someone where there is something of a connection is like finding an oasis in the desert that is not just a mirage!

Anyway, yesterday in church she gave me a gift! It was a silver necklace with two little dolphins on it. I asked her why she was giving it to me (after very excitedly receiving it of course), and she said it was for friendship and something about how teams come and go from America, but they never really get to know each other (the American teams and the locals that is), but she feels like she has been able to get to know me and be friends just in the last week. I told her it made me very happy to know her too--or at least I tried to tell her that.

I just love how the Lord totally provides for all of our needs, very often in ways we are not expecting but which far surpass anything we thought might happen. I never considered my need for friends other than the Americans here. It's not that I thought the missionaries would be sufficient for the relationship needs of my heart, but more so that I never really thought about that aspect of living here at all! I knew I'd miss my friends and family, but how I might make up for the loss of interaction and deep fellowship was never something that my mind thought to contemplate. And yet, here I am making friends with a local girl with whom my conversational abilities are quite limited and yet still both of us experience a special connection. That is only the Lord, and it is such a precious gift how he knits us together across all possible barriers. Nothing can stop that and it's so exciting but it is so touching deep, deep down as well.

I "accidentally" flipped to John 10 yesterday and read about the good shepherd and how his sheep know his voice and how he cares for them and leads them. There is something so gentle for me in that imagery--the shepherd who knows his sheep so intimately that he would know when just one was missing from a flock of 100. Here is yet another example of just how well he knows and loves and shepherds me. Thank you Jesus!!!