The Missionary Suitcase

Harriet is a beautiful Congolese woman who has moved with family from the Congo to Johannesburg. After they joined the church they were disowned by most of their family. Unemployment in Congo is 90% and here it is only 40% so they were hoping to better provide for their 4 children plus about 4 extended family member who live with them She is a beautiful seamstress and she helps support her family by sewing gorgeous African clothes. She is RS President in on of the wards. A while ago she came to me and asked if I could help her with Visiting Teaching. Their %'s are very low and she wanted to have her sisters understand the need to watch over each other. We talked for a long time and she reiterated what I already knew the problems were. Nobody has cars so they have to walk. The distances are long. Women often are very busy just helping ether families survive. They don't really have the vision of reaching out to sisters other than their own families. Because many are new converts it is a new concept to even serve others. I suggested she have a meeting ( VT Conference) to teach why and how. She loved the idea so I gathered materials to help. I went to her very humble home to teach and help her.
Her home is one of the nicest in the ward with carpet pads for carpet, a very old and used couch and one chair in a tiny living room A table for the family to eat on was a board on some kind of supported wood. It was spotless as all African homes are that I have been in. Her darling girls danced around me with beautiful hair with extensions and beads and bows that the Mother had spent hours styling. One is 8 and the other 3 years old. and she has 2 sons ages 11 and 15.
She took me into her tiny sewing room which did have 2 sewing machines and an ironing board made from a board she had padded and it rested on a cardboard box. We talked about VT and used the ironing board as a table. This was also her 15 year old son's bedroom and there was a tiny cot for him to sleep on. Right next to his bed wedged between his bed and her sewing machine was a very large suitcase. Harriet saw me look at the suitcase . She said, " Sister Parmley, that is my son's missionary suitcase." All he wanted for Christmas was a missionary suitcase and that is it. Isn't it beautiful?" We had to search hard to find it." When my little girls come in here and play with the zippers on the case, he gets very upset and tells them this will be his only missionary suitcase and they should not touch it. He is 15. As he turns over in his bed for the next 4 years, he will have the suitcase in his face to remind him of his desire to serve the Lord. As I was in that humble home, I felt the Spirit whisper AGAIN how privileged I am to rub shoulders with such righteous, humble women such as my friend, who are striving to serve the best way they can and mostly are devoted to having the Spirit in their homes so their children will grow up in the Gospel. I will never be the same as I am constantly touched by these remarkable people.
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