Mariama the Evangelist part 1

Mariama is such a sweet girl!  She has that sweet, innocent childlike faith.  We have at times had people visit our home.  Often she would go get her bear that says the Lord's Prayer or sings "Jesus Loves Me", but I really was not sure why.  I thought she just wanted to show them something nice.  Well, we saw one of Rich's friends at the market a few days after he had come by the house.  She said, "I like him.  He knows Jesus."  I said, "Really, how do you know?"  She replied rather matter of factly, "Because I showed my bear to him that sings about Jesus.  Now he is a follower of Jesus too."  I was touched and yet sadly replied, "If only it were that easy honey.  Knowing about Jesus does not mean that he has accepted who Jesus is and chosen to follow Him."

Well she has continued to learn and grow spiritually and been listening to her brother, who will have his own blog series soon.  So a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday night, I heard her outside talking to our guard.  Rephrase, not talking, but rather singing to him.  She sang "Jesus loves the little children," "Jesus loves me", and "Victory in Jesus" followed by some conversation that could not be heard from where I was.  When she same inside, she seemed rather proud of herself.  She said that our guard was a Christian now.  Really??  She has told him that Jesus was not just a prophet, but our High Priest.  She told him he needed to pray to Jesus.  Then he was about to pray, as he does 5 times a day, and she thought he was going to pray to Jesus.  She had been speaking to him in English, which he does understand somewhat, but it is not totally clear to him.  I had to tell her that he might take a while to really understand, and someone might have to talk with him in his language for him to fully understand.  I hated to squelch her optimism, but I was quick to praise her for the seeds she planted and her effort. 

A week or so after this Rich and I were getting the family ready for family movie night.  I do not even remember  how we got to talking about this again, but she began talking about that night from above.  She was wanting to go follow up with the guard and ask him if he had asked Jesus to come into his heart yet.  We talked about what that meant and that we should do something before asking someone else if they have.  She said she had not done that yet.  We talked about what was involved and then she said she needed a minute "alone".  Then she bowed her head in front of us and prayed the simplest but most important prayer of her life. 

Because she is so smart and she hears us talking about these things all the time, we wanted to be sure that she really understood.  A few days later at lunch or dinner, something came up about Jesus forgiving our sins and becoming the boss of our lives.  She said that she had done that.  Playing a little silly, I asked, "when?"  She said, "You know the other night before family movie night."  I said, "O yes, I remember, I just wanted to make sure you did."  Then she shared this news with Grandma as we skyped on Sunday. 

Oh, my sweet girl!  What precious childlike faith!