The Future

My calling at church involves the young women of the branch and let me tell you these girls are AMAZING. They all live with pretty rough circumstances. They have A LOT working against them in life and I give them rides all the time so I am painfully aware that they also live in some of the roughest neighborhoods in Richmond. But if anyone "owns" resilience it is these girls. Despite all the obstacles they face in life, actually probably because of all of the obstacles these girls face in life they are so wise and soulful. They laugh and joke. There is always some new dance they are trying to master (right now it is the "jerk"). And they are always bringing new friends with them. Sometimes I really underestimate them. Sometimes I think they will hate cleaning our blind friend's house but then they totally step it up and scrub his mold crusted toilet bowl like it's no big deal. Yesterday they were so willing to put on a Halloween festival for the little kids without expecting anything in return (which can be hard when you don't get what you want most of the time).

They are all special and brilliantly full of life but there is one girl that always gets to my heart. She is from Cameroon. They won the immigration lottery and moving to this city has been rough. I could go on for pages about all the rough stuff her move has presented her with but basically just know that it would make your jaw drop. Kids at school have been SO cruel to her and the funny thing is that she gets teased for refusing to be mean to others and for doing her homework (pretty backwards). She basically has a compact with the Lord that if she reads the scriptures and prays every day then He will help school to be livable. She has a pretty amazing testimony about the power of staying close to the Lord because of the days she forgot to keep her end of the bargain. But now three years later she is on the honor roll despite learning a second language. Every week when I am driving her home she gives a speech about how precious her future is and how carefully she is preparing to make the most of herself. And every single week, without fail, she testifies to me about something whether it is her family's conversion story (amazing) or an answer to a prayer or how she feels when she serves others or how she loves her family. I don't think she knows that I have yet to drop her off with dry eyes.

As we were leaving the Halloween party yesterday she ran off to go talk to someone. She came back with a big case and we put it in the trunk. As we were pulling out of the parking lot she asked if she could go ask someone something. I admit, ashamed, that I was a little put out but insisted that she go. As we were driving home she told me that the case had a keyboard. She told me she loves music and has been wanting to learn to play the piano for the longest time. She works braiding hair and has been saving her money but still won't have enough for a keyboard for a while. So she started praying, praying and praying and praying that she could find a way to get a piano. I don't know the entire story but recently the branch president pulled her aside and asked if she liked to play the piano and said that there was a keyboard the branch wasn't using that she could borrow (which she had just shoved in my trunk). In the parking lot , when I was busy being impatient, she had simply run to ask another young woman about sheet music so that she could start teaching herself the piano (I'm feeling pretty sheepish). She is certain that being able to borrow the keyboard was all in answer to her prayer, which seems very likely, but you should hear her talk about it. You WILL cry.

I wish I could share everything about Rama. I wish I could share everything about Kayla and Rouka and Sylvia and Becky and Latifa and Ja-tae and Raven and Rinda and Marissa. If you knew the things I know about them you would also know that the future is very VERY bright.