The weather now is cold. I'm wearing my long underwear under my jeans, a turtle neck shirt, a sweater and my raincoat; and I'm still not very warm. How do those who sleep outside in the cold survive? The radiators (heaters) in our building are controlled by the landlord, so they don't come on until evening. We will go through a lot of hot tea today.The "baby" room is set up and ready to go. Our first guests come running in the door, hoping we might have clothes to give away, but sadly we don't have any to give. We invite them to come back on Wednesday. Our Greek volunteer will sort the donations we have received and we will be ready by Wednesday. Ladies are dropping in looking for pictures from the Christmas parties. The toddler son of an Egyptian family is overwhelmed by the crowd of Farsi speaking children. First he pulls his chair next to my stool. Then he crawls in my lap. Soon he is asleep on my shoulder. Later he wakes up surprised that his perch is not on his mom's shoulder. Then, his mom tells me he has been sick for several days. She is happy for the break. I can look forward to flu and a fever and a week off work. I put sanitizer on my hands, but I think it is too little, too late. It is not just him, almost every child is coughing or has a running nose or fever.
Next a lady comes in with 4 month old twins. A girl for Susie. A boy for me. My arms ache for my granddaughter, who is so far away, so it is a good day to have babies to hold. By now the room is full. There are 20+ children playing on the floor and 6 more moms sitting around talking in our small room. Outside our door, there are no chairs left. A little boy in our room who is new still has trauma issues. You can tell by the way he hordes his toys and will not share or interact with the other children. The others recognize this behavior and let him be. We are so busy that a red rocking horse is taken out of the room. Another parent stops the child as he tries to give it to his mother to take to his house. I don't know how I missed a toddler carrying a 3 foot red horse out the door! LOL!
Later when they start serving food across the street and our numbers dwindle as our friends go to get food. A young mom stops at the door and wants information on how to get an abortion. No one here will tell her and she is frustrated. We tell her, that God loves the children and we do too. We will not help her either. Even if she finds someone to help her, she must pay if she does not have a red card from the government and she doesn't have money. No money to raise a child. No money to end a pregnancy. We pray for her.
Near the end of the day, Kenn comes to find me. He and Ebi have made some new friends he wants me to meet. They are 3 families from Iran. Two families are believers. The third is seeking. The women do not have their head covered. They are afraid for the Afghans to know they follow Jesus, but want to find other believers.they have been here for several months and not met any other Farsi speaking believers. Someone sent them to us. They feel that God has brought them on this adventure to share Christ with the Afghans even though they are afraid. I introduce myself, but the day is over before I get to fully hear their story. I hope they will come back. I would like to have them in our home.
We say our good-byes (khoda ha fez) with hugs and kisses. We wipe tables. We sweep. We mop. We walk up the hill. We ride the train. We ride the bus. We walk down our street. Finally we are home again.
