Meagan left yesterday to return to her home in Africa. Officially, she's an American and she loves the country of her birth but her heart is elsewhere. The daughter of my brother, Dave, and his wonderful wife, Sally, Meagan lived in Zambia at the Namwianga Mission for four years before this recent two year sabbatical. Her job is taking care of the infants but that's like saying Van Gogh's job was painting. It's her life, giving love to babies, many of whom are HIV+ and whose life expectancy is brutally short. She's cried at many funerals and held many little ones as they take their final breath on this side of eternity. I could not even hazard a guess on how many Americans are now involved in the work at Namwianga because of Meagan, including many at my school whom she has never met and will never meet. If you're inclined to believe analogies which include fairy tales, she's a twenty-first century Pied Piper.
When Meagan was growing up, I would see her several times a year, usually at Christmas and sometimes in the summer. You know how a song gets stuck in your head and it just seems natural to sing it at the drop of a hat? That's what Meagan did one visit to St. Louis to see her grandparents/my folks. Every time we got in the car, she broke out with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbender's hit, Game Of Love. Loudly. She must have been only ten or eleven at the time and she had no inhibitions. She mastered that song, made it her own with the unique stylings only a pre-teen niece can pull off and still be amazingly adorable. Meagan's not a little girl anymore. She's a big time player in a most vicious struggle and her arrival will allow the survival of some most at risk. Last spring, a young lady who had worked alongside Meagan in Africa was performing at my school in Houston with a drama group. She related how the mortality rate of the babies drops dramatically when Meagan is living at the Mission. When Meagan was a child, she sang over and over and over that love was a game. Now, she knows it's the best weapon in the battle between life and death and without a doubt, she's been armed by the Lord. God speed, Meagan Hawley. One continent is about to get a little brighter.
To watch/listen to The Game Of Love, copy/paste or click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzVLQTovv_g
Applicable quote of the day:
"Love is a game than two can play and both win."
Eva Gabor
God bless and love,
Uncle Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
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