Mother's Heart
By PÄIVI RANTA, MP Finland Coordinator
What is it like to be the
mother of a sick little child
in a slum village?
This is what I have been falling asleep thinking about as my thoughts travel to the Bulgarian slums and on the mothers I have met there. The faces of Bozana and her little daughter Kristina specifically come to my mind.
I met them for the first time through the photo of Mission Possible’s February 2017 newsletter. In the photo, a sixteen-year-old mother holds a baby girl in her arms, and Todor, the nineteen-year-old father, is standing next to her. The family had just received a Baby Box, one of the first we had distributed. They lived in a dilapidated shack and neither had a job, but they rejoiced over their child and were grateful for the package they received.
It was about two years later that I met Bozana and her daughter at the church in the slum village of Pevtsite. We were distributing more Baby Boxes and our worker Daniela was doing a class for mothers at the church. Bozana was sitting amongst the other women, holding Kristina in her lap. I immediately recognized her. I was glad to see that she and her child were at the church because it meant they were receiving help and support.
When the teaching was over we prayed for every mother. I made my way to Bozana. She spoke softly and solemnly as she asked me to pray for Kristina, who was over two years old but couldn’t walk. I prayed for Bozana and her child.
In that brief moment of prayer, two mothers met.
Our lives were completely different;
We were of different ages
and lived in completely different circumstances…
Nevertheless, we were both mothers who carry our children in our arms and hearts. Her joys and sorrows are similar to my joys and sorrows. When I wonder what it must be like to be the mother of a sick child in a slum village, I think of my own child, and then I have the answer.
At night in my bed I wonder if at that same moment Bozana is looking at her little sleeping Kristina and stroking her soft cheek.
“Lord, please help and bless my child,”
we both whisper in our hearts to our Heavenly Father.
We know our children are
precious to God.
Päivi gives Bozana a “Gospel bracelet,” of which we’ll tell more about in our next newsletter.
