Saturday Janet and I piled into our truck with three
friends and seven “rocking bears” and headed out for an orphanage, “Les Ailes
de Refuge,” (The Wings of Refuge) in the town of Yako, 70-miles from
Ouaga. There was a story behind the
freshly-painted wooden bears riding in the back of our truck. They were
completing a journey that began on the dusty, sunbaked streets of Ouaga well
before we left for Yako. The bears were actually
coming full circle.
A wiry and well-tanned Kate Royal operates a small
mission on a dusty, rough road in Ouaga.
Her mission is a refuge for boys from a hard life of begging on the
street. Besides refuge, Kate’s mission
offers food (usually rice with some sauce, a bit of meat or fish and whatever
else is available) steeped in the Gospel and the love of Jesus; a chance once
more to play; to learn to speak French (more universally useful than Mooré,
Jula, or Fulfulde); and to begin to learn a trade—carpentry—and maybe a way off
of the streets. The boys make small
stools upon which many Burkinabé sit and more recently they crafted the very
solid “rocking bears” that could easily grace the shelves of Toys R Us.
Shortly after arriving at the orphanage we carried the
rocking bears to a rare shady spot next to one of the classrooms. We set them on the ground, stood back and
watched as a handful of toddlers slowly made their way cautiously to the
unfamiliar objects. Likely beckoned by
the bear’s smiling painted faces, one-by-one each child reached out to touch a
bear. The most adventurous encouraged by
volunteers climbed into a seat and almost immediately began to rock
back-and-forth as smiles sprouted and giggles belied delight with the strange,
new playthings.
I watched one young, blind girl warily sweep her tiny
fingertips across the bear’s freshly varnished and painted surface. As if an image were slowly building in her
mind’s eye a smile blossomed on her lips.
She felt her way to the seat and climbed onto her bear and headed off to
where ever she imagined. Next to her a
stout young man with a joyously round face already upon his mount, twisted his
small hand as if to rev the engine on a “moto” and “brrrrrrmmed” his way down
an unseen road.
The bears made a round trip, but to a place they had
never been before. The bears began their voyage at the hands of young men—many
of them orphans themselves—back to the hands of other orphans. With them, the bears carried the hopes of
young craftsmen for a better life and the desire to help make a slightly better
life for other orphans while demonstrating and sharing the love of Christ for
some of “the least of these.” We all
learned a lesson that day; sometimes the biggest thing you can do is what you
can do for the smallest.
