My First Roommate

I've been complaining to the Lord lately about feeling lonely because I live in my house all by myself. Well it's funny how the Lord answers our complaints sometimes. 

My answer came in the form of Ollie. That's not her real name, but that's what we will call her. She is a student in our Young Scholars Program, doing the equivalent of the tenth grade. Her father has abandoned the family and her mother doesn't have the resources to send all of her children to school. Since there is no secondary school in her village, she comes to our city to live during the school year and attend high school. Finding lodging for her and two other young women like her can be a little tricky, so when she needed a place to stay for just one night while we figured something out, I let her stay with me, not knowing that it would turn into a 12-day affair. 

I got to teach her how to use the toilet, make tea on the stove, and pop popcorn in the microwave. She taught me how to make djo-djo, a traditional Dagara leaf sauce that is so weird but has become one of my very favorites, and I taught her how to make a variation of pizza using the bread that we can find here in town. I think she probably thinks my food is weird, my sleeping pattern is bizarre (since she goes to bed early and wakes up with the sun), and that I work all the time (which is partially true).

She doesn't talk much, and really neither do I, I suppose. That's why we had a little difficulty communicating at first. I would ask a question, and she would reapond with yes or no, and that was all. I would ask what she did today, and she would say "nothing" and I would insist that surely she did something and then she would give the shortest answer possible. I would continue this until I ran out of questions to ask, and then we would sit in awkward silence. 

But I know that relationships and establishing trust take time, and so I patiently kept trying and talking. 

Then one night we had a breakthrough. I asked her if her family were Christians, and she went into her whole life story. I asked her about her conversion and how she decided to follow Jesus, and she told me an amazing story about how the enemy fought for her soul. I learned that here in Burkina culture, when someone comes across camelion eggs, it is taken as a sign that they will become a fetisher. In the same manner, if someone finds a certain type of rare leaves, they will become a fetisher. Ollie experienced both. The first time, she collected and kept the camelion eggs...because of fear. The second time, when she saw the leaves, she ran away as fast as she could...again because of fear.

Her mother had converted to Christianity and her older brother followed shortly after. After seeing their faith, Ollie got up one Sunday morning and decided to give church a try. After hearing the message, her heart was so touched that she ran home and threw out the camelion eggs and decided to follow Jesus.

When I asked her what her favorite verse is, she told me 2 Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come." That's very fitting for her, I think. 

I wrote the verse on a colorful note card and gave it to her the night before she left. I thanked her for the start of a new friendship, for her company in my house, and for sharing a piece of her life with me. 

"Thanks for the gift you gave me," she pulled me aside and told me the next day. "I've reflected on that verse a lot, and it really means a lot to me." 

"I pray that it encourages you always," I said. I also pray that her time spent in my house was an encouragement to her, that it will be something she treasure in her heart and something she remembers the next time she needs a safe place to go. 

The house is a little empty and lonely again tonight without her, but I sense that God has started something new. Next year, I want to begin a small group Bible study for teenage girls in my house, and I think Ollie was a part of opening that door. Through her staying with me these past couple of weeks, many of her friends have also come to visit her here, and we even spent a whole evening making sauce together - just me and five teen girls in the scholars program. They now know where I live and that they are always welcome here. 

Being with Ollie this week has also taught me how to be patient in starting new relationships with girls like her who are timid because of the suffering they have faced in this unjust world. It's an honor to be their friend, even if it is a little hard to break through at first, 

She was the first to come into my home and find a safe place to open her heart, but she won't be the last.