Cambree and Salome

Cambree has a good friend named Ba Salome. When Salome first moved here in April of 2011, Cambree used to come to the women's Bible studies and sit by her. Salome told Cambree that she needed to scrub her feet with a rock to "move the cracks" as Cambree says. Salome then found Cambree her own special foot scrubbing rock, and the friendship was forged. :) Cambree has been begging me forever to go and visit Salome, and I'll be honest and say that I've been putting her off. Salome lives in a grass hut, and I wasn't sure I was ready for all the questions that would come from my precocious 5 year old daughter. But alas, on Sunday Cambree asked me if she could go home with Salome and spend the night, so I decided we should finally make a plan to go and visit. Cambree was SO excited all day and drove her Mama a little crazy :) Salome told her she should wear her best clothes to come and visit someone, so Cambree got dressed up in her Cinderella dress and asked at 7:30am if it was time to go. No, sweetie, we are going at 3pm.... Cambree made a special package to take to Salome: a ziploc bag with an apple, some cashews, some coloring pages, and her special Wendy figurine from her Peter Pan set. :) I put a box of milk, a loaf of bread, a can of beans, and a package of sugar in a bag and at 3pm, we were all set to go.

Salome lives quite a ways from New Day, and it was a LONG walk in the African sun! Laurie and Debbie came with us and we all enjoyed the walk.

When we got there, Salome dragged a mat made of pieced together maize sacks over to the tree and we all sat down. When we asked how old she was, she went into her house and got out all of her important papers and pictures. She showed us her birth record card, (born Dec 29, 1949), her mother's birth record card, and pictures of all of her children. She had 6 children - 5 girls and 1 boy, and all of the girls have died. Her husband died in a road accident in 1984. She has had a hard life, but she knows Jesus. Salome spends her mornings in her fields - she harvests maize (white corn), ground nuts (peanuts), root vegetables, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane. She is a HARD worker. Cambree gave her our gifts and in return she gave us sweet potatoes, ground nuts, and sugar cane. We all made the long trek back to New Day, dodging thorny bushes and looking out for snakes! Tonight in the bathtub Cambree started talking about Salome's house. I told her that God had blessed us with a big house and she said, "Mama, has God blessed Salome?" I said that yes, He had. He provides for her and He gave her friends like Cambree who can help her. I then told her that because Salome has Jesus in her heart, Jesus is preparing a mansion for her in heaven. Cambree said, "Will I get to live there too? Because I asked Jesus in my heart so many times!" I explained that yes, she would live there too, but that she didn't have to ask Jesus into her heart so many times, only once and He would stay there forever. She said, "But I asked him into my heart so many times because I still do bad things!" I then called in the big theological guns (Daddy), and he had the pleasure of leading Cambree in asking Jesus into her heart ("for the last time!"). I thank God tonight for Salome. She doesn't know it yet, but as she goes to sleep in her grass hut tonight, she has been instrumental in a little girl who is growing up in Zambia giving her heart to Jesus.