zeyneb

Zeyneb is a toddler now. Her mother watches her with a certain awe. When they came by foot here she was so traumatized that there was no milk to give the baby. The infant lay limp in the dirty rags, and hunger crying from her other children made her already aching head dizzy. Dust clung to everything.

In a daze she remembers how some of the other mothers took the baby roughly from her arms and gave it to the Smiling One. This was a woman who walked with certain steps and a confidence that emitted hope. Even so, Zeyneb’s mother says, she thought the women were giving her baby away to be buried. She didn’t even know the child had hope to be alive. Staggering, she used her now-freed hands to gather the others to her bosom.

And then there was food. It was a kindness she would never forget. The taste of food after hunger is a memory etched deep. She still tears up remembering, and gives deep thanks for every meal.

Zeyneb toddles now. This is because the Smiling One was a mother, just like herself. But she belonged to a group of people who follow Isa. They prayed for the baby, and she turned from gray to rosy pink again. She responded to food, and medicine for her rashes. When the child was put back in her arms 24 hours later, she could hardly believe it!

“Yes,” she recalls, “That day everything changed. I had been as low as hopelessness can make you. People reached out and showed me love. The Smiling One has a name, and is a friend now. She has welcomed our family into this refugee camp, and helped us make this new place a home. But even more, I have met Isa. Without this journey, I don’t know if I would have. I know God didn’t plan the horror of this war, but He has used its evil for good to me and my family and I’m forever grateful!”