Jared's birthday

This week I met a little boy named Jared. He was playing with my girls, running around and around on the packed, red dirt next to fields of sugarcane and sweet potatoes and drying stalks of corn. They were playing just yards away from the red, clay building where the pastor’s conference was going on. As my girls and Jared ran back and forth, up and down, around and around, a woman walked up. It was Jared’s mother. We had one of those mom talks. We chatted about our children’s names and ages. I learned that Jared was 2 years and 3 days old. He had been a sickly baby, so his second birthday was cause for celebration. Now he was a healthy 2 year and 3 day old running around with new friends!

I asked the instinctive, American question in response to hearing that a child has just had a birthday - tempered, I thought, for cultural differences, “How did you celebrate?”

“We had no money to celebrate, but I prayed for him,” was his mother’s answer.

Her answer shook me. She gave him the best gift - prayer, because she had no other gift to give him.

This family could not afford to celebrate their treasured child’s birthday, and yet they found a way to come to the conference. What sacrifices they must have made to come to the Pastor Training Conference.

by Sara Call