The Lord Is My Shepherd

With our two small children, my husband and I went as missionaries to Kenya, East Africa. Soon after we arrived, Susie became part of our family.

That year had been especially hard for her.

Her father had died, and her mother had been bitten by a snake and lost her lower leg. Now it was almost Christmas. Tall poinsettia bushes dressed in bright scarlet and massive jacaranda trees arrayed in myriads of blue blossoms heralded the season.

The day before Christmas, we packed the car with food for Susie’s family. Perched on the roof rack was a large sack of maize. We placed cooking oil, salt, sugar, matches, bananas, and bars of soap in the trunk of the car. We added dresses and a few toys for Susie’s little sisters from my Stateside Christmas stash. On Christmas morning, my husband got up early and went to our garden to gather beets, tomatoes, carrots, avocados, tomatoes, and greens. Then we added pineapples, oranges, papayas, eggs, and freshly baked bread.

Mama Salome, Susie’s mother, had planted her field with maize and beans, which she carefully guarded day and night to keep out the warthogs—a major task for a woman with only one leg! What we did not know until we arrived that Christmas day was that robbers had stolen all her maize and beans. The family had eaten very little for three weeks. When we stopped near their mud-and-thatch hut, three skinny little girls stumbled out.

As we unloaded our car, Mama Salome emerged from the hut, with tears streaming down her face. She thanked us again and again.

Within moments, Susie kindled the cooking fire.

When the ugali (thick maize porridge) was cooked, Mama Salome invited us to eat. We replied, “You must eat first! Your girls are hungry!” She insisted that, as guests, we must eat first. We instructed our children to eat only a little—and very fast! Not until we had eaten did the girls eat, and oh, how they ate. When we went into the little hut, on the wall was the memory verse picture roll I had given them on an earlier visit. It was open to the picture of the Good Shepherd. The Bible verse displayed was, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Mama Salome had been awake all night, praying for food. And it was Christmas!

Dorothy Duncan (deceased)