I met a boy today who couldn’t speak.
His name was Kiking, and he was about eight years old. I suppose the typical response to meeting a mute child would be to locate his parents and take him to a specialist for proper diagnosis and treatment. But as missionaries, we rarely respond in a “typical” way.
When my teammate Joanne and I met Kiking at the ferry port, he was drooling just a bit, and his arms were mottled with discoloration and warts. Although we spoke to him in his native dialect, he would not respond vocally, not even to tell us us his name, which we later learned from some bystanders. “Do you know Jesus?” Joanne asked him, and he nodded yes.
What affected me most about this little boy was not his physical skin condition as much as the fact that he could not say his own name. I wanted so badly for him to know his identity, that he is a son of God. Perhaps he has no parents or no place to stay at night, but he has a place in this world and more importantly a place that God has prepared for him in the heavenly kingdom.
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| A little first aid and a lot of love for some neighborhood friends at my house in Sagay. |
We prayed over Kiking for healing, for Jesus to loosen his tongue so that he might speak, and we gave him my cross and Joanne’s “Jesus loves the Philippines” tshirt, so he will remember who he is and Whose he is. I know this was just one of many encounters God has in store for us this year, and I pray that, with my teammates’ courageous initiative, I will become a bolder witness to Christ and to the Gospel.
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord.” ~ 2 Tim 1:7-8
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