Maria

During the fall of 2010 I spent roughly eight weeks in missions traveling around East Africa. The second to last stop during this particular trip was in Tanzania. Here, my three traveling companions and I connected with a mission outreach team from our home congregation.

This mission team was made up of several lay leaders who were involved in medical missions, hosting an Alpha conference, and a group of leaders dedicated to a start-up non-profit organization called Food for His Children. www.foodforhischildren.org

Members of the team chose one of several different ways to spend each day of their trip and then would gather with the entire team to debrief their day each evening. It was at one of those evening debriefing sessions that I first heard about Maria. I had spent the day at the Alpha conference while some other members of the team had spent the day in the local community. Following a school visit and some home visits the pastor who was accompanying the community group took the team to a nearby village to pray for a young girl named Maria.

Maria was maybe 7 or 8 years old at the time and had been living in a home with her mother and slightly older brother. Unfortunately, Maria had been born deaf and blind and was consequently mute as well. Maria’s mother was a single parent who had to work during the day to provide for her family and did not have enough income to hire outside care for Maria. This meant Maria spent hours alone each day with no one to care for her.

When the team arrived to pray for Maria they found her initially (and understandably) hostile to their approach. My friend said she felt the Lord leading her to pray for some sort of deliverance for Maria. She held the girl as she prayed over her and soon Maria was hanging onto my friend as if she was never going to let her go. My friend said they spent a long time embracing as she spoke words of love and comfort over Maria.

Another gentleman who was also praying said he had something strange happen that he had never seen before. He said that while they were praying for Maria, faces: bad faces, ugly faces, angry faces, had begun appearing to him and then disappearing. As a team, we believed that God had indeed delivered Maria in some way that day! Praise God!

The next day of the trip, I accompanied the medical team out into the community. While I have no medical background or experience, I thought I could pray for the people we visited and those who did. Sure enough, towards the end of the day, the pastor we were traveling with took us to Maria’s home. He said he knew there was nothing medical that could be done for her, but that we should go and pray anyway.

When we arrived at Maria’s home we met her brother. He led Maria to us and I, too, experienced the hostility from a young girl who was trapped inside herself, not knowing what was happening in the world around her. I thought, “Oh, God. Where do I even begin…?” I did my best to place my hands on Maria in a gentle reassuring manner and began praying for healing. I thought Maria was beginning to relax and trust my touch when al of a sudden she began howling and pulling on her ears. I was shocked and not sure what to do when Maria then began scraping in the mud and trying to put it into her eyes.

By this time I felt like I had completely failed and somehow violated her space causing this extreme reaction when I saw one of our African team members smiling and praising God. I looked at her curiously and asked what was going on. She said, “She’s completely deaf and so cannot hear what you are praying, yet when you prayed for healing she began pulling on her ears. She must have heard some sort of sound. She must have also seen some sort of light and it frightened her. Look how she is trying to put mud into her eyes to darken them. I believe God is beginning to heal her!”

I was so filled with compassion for this little girl. God was beginning to heal her and she was scared. I didn’t know how to reassure her about what was happening, but I knew it was not God’s will to have her terrified of his touch. So, I did the only thing I could think of and grabbed hold of her, hugging her tight and praying words of God’s comfort and love over her. Almost instantly God was able to calm her from the inside. Maria’s body melted into mine as she hung on tightly. I’m not sure what God did, but it was exactly what she needed!

After a bit, Maria’s brother led Maria back to the comfort of the “room” (aka tin shed) where Maria spent much of her day. This tin shed was dark and empty with a mud floor. The pastor showed us the tree trunk in the corner of the shed that Maria was tied to during the day for her “safety.”

Now, most of us would call this child abuse – and I’m not trying to champion this behavior – but in the context of rural Africa, where children who are “different” have a very dismal future if any, this young girl seemed outwardly healthy, was wearing properly fitted clothing and was not starving. It was obvious maria’s mother loved her, she just didn’t have the ability to care for her.

At the evening debriefing time I learned several people from our church had met Maria and had been trying to arrange care for her through the local pastor. Unfortunately, the attempts had been mostly unsuccessful. There was however, new hope for Maria on the horizon.

A staff member of our church had a daughter who had committed to opening a school for disabled children in a nearby village to Maria. The building had been bought and dedicated and plans for opening were underway, but the distance and the cost for Maria’s mother to send Maria to the school (if indeed she could be convinced to do so) would be great.

Fast forward to a year and a half, much labor, and many prayers later. I have just received word that a generous benefactor has provided what Maria’s family needed for Maria to attend the school! The African woman who was praying beside me that day in Tanzania was an instrumental figure in making sure Maria had not been forgotten!

I received pictures of Maria last week at school. One glance was all it took for me to see how deeply God cares for each and every one of his children! While the world may have discounted the value of Maria’s life, she is invaluable in the eyes of God!