May 13, 2006 - Little Angie From The Mountains Of Peru

Dear Friends,

This is just a note to share with you something very close to my heart for your prayers!

Last Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, Angie was combing her long, shiny black hair over her forehead, trying to dry her tresses in the warm morning sunshine. Ruben came by on his way to church and he greeted her with "Hi Angie. Let's go to church." With both hands, Angie parted her hair as if it were a curtain, and peeking up at Ruben with her beautiful black eyes, she responded by saying that she couldn't go to church because her father would not let her. (A few weeks before, Angie and other neighborhood children had attended a class, where Gisela had presented the Gospel and asked who wanted to receive Jesus as Savior. Some kids raised their hands, but Angie said she couldn't accept Jesus because her parents wouldn't let her, but in her heart she wanted to.) Now, she was guarding her father's cows at the door of their house. She was preparing to go to graze the cows down in the valley, because at the age of nine, she was expected to help her mother shepherd the cattle that day in their field.

When Ruben returned to his home around 4 p.m., there was a black veil covering Angie's door. This could only mean that someone had died. Yes, there was the fragile little body of Angie on the table. She had tied the rope of one of the bulls to her waist for good measure to keep the animal under control. But the bull ran away and dragged Angie two hundred yards to her death. Her mother later told how she had been unable to do anything except to watch as the bull pulled her little girl behind him, dashing her head against the rocks.

The message last night was on the death of a young man of Nain, the only son of a widow lady on whom the Lord Jesus had compassion and resurrected her son from the dead.

In the past, Angie had been invited to VBS, to Sunday school and to church, but her parents would not let her come. Therefore, our first reaction was anger against the parents for not letting her come to hear more about Jesus in our meetings.

But the message of the widow's son speaks of Jesus having compassion...not so much on the dead child, but on the mother weeping over her only child. So this morning at 10 a.m., I wrote a letter to the mother of Angie, whose husband has just left her. Now she cannot bear to be in that house alone. So, with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I sent a group of 7 young ladies to encourage this mother and to invite her to come to the church that has been praying for her and weeping for Angie.

To us, it is as if our Lord Himself intervened to guide our compassion in the right direction to try to honor Angie by loving the very ones who kept her from church and were not careful as parents with her. I have never seen this lady, but I am hoping to see her next Sunday in church. Would you pray for her please? She is alone, lonely and hurting."

As for Angie, we would like to think that the Lord Himself took her. We would like to imagine her in the lap of Him who said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for of such is the Kingdom of God."