Little Girl Blue

I was looking at some photos the other day and discovered that in 4 of my school photos (yes, they did do them in my day!) I am wearing spotty frocks - 4 different ones. I don't remember liking spots - it's all down either to my mum, or to my grandmother who used to send me dresses for gifts. I imagine it was the latter. I vaguely remember some of them, especially the colour. More than one of them - maybe all 4 - were blue.

This year in Rwanda one of our 'hope visits' took us to a very poor home in a rural area where we've visited and worked before. This visit was a tough one. Materially the family were poor. There was almost nothing in the house and the surrounding area looked parched and bare. It was like not only was there no food for now, but little hope of anything anytime soon.

The conditions we found there were not unusual in some ways, but there was something else. Looking at the family, there was such a sense of hopelessness about them. The mother and father looked worn and tired. The older boy looked dark, tough, and even aggressive. When asked his age, the younger boy told us to ask his dad. None of the children had had any kind of education. There was almost a sense of it being too late. We'd got there too late. Of course I know that's not true, and we hope our little time there brought some of God's light and hope into a very dark place.

And then there was the little girl in blue. In the darkness - literally and

spiritually - of that home, there was Clementine. She is the third child in the house, and on the day we visited, stood out, dressed in a bright blue dress. This wee girl had tried to go to school; had been on and off; had been sent home because she hadn't the money. People often say to me that they couldn't deal with going to Africa or other such places because they would have to bring all the children home. I won't go into all the answers to that one just now, but in a way, I do bring children home. One I brought home this year was Clementine. I brought her story home because the little blue dress almost haunted me - in a good way - I couldn't forget her. 

We found Clementine a sponsor - in fact more people asked about sponsoring her than any other individual child. She'll now go to school. Her life has changed forever. And that will help her family's life change too. There is light where there was once darkness. There is hope and a future. And that's how it works - one by one; little by little.

I was often dressed in blue as a baby and then as a child - apparently I looked 'hideous' - my mum's word - in pink. And the jaundice and yellow dress combo didn't quite work either! All these years later one little 'girl blue' met another - and God did his stuff. Amazing!