Ashes and Indians; a Final Journey, Part 3

Two things happened during the time we were in Cóngoma for the memorial for our parents that I want to tell you about. One was great.  One would have been if I had been able to finish it.

I thought of a young Tsachi woman who had married when we still lived there (so I was 10 or younger).  She was probably about 13 or 14 at the time.  All I could picture was her cute, sweet face as I had last seen it and her nickname (Pelá, which means "spider"). I wondered if she might be present, though knowing that I probably wouldn't recognize her. Then my sister called me over to talk to Carán (not sure of the spelling). This Tsachi sister remembered so much about us years ago, and we spent some time talking and reminiscing together.  I asked Germán to take a picture of us.

Here we're posing with my sister Carol (to my left), sister-in-law Princene and niece NaevEnya.

The building in the background is the church, where we held the service before going to the cemetery. There the first thing happened.

In the sharing-time of the service, I accompanied Germán up to the front and told a short story of something that had happened over 50 years ago, wondering if any of the Tsáchila there remembered.  But though the story was complete in itself, it didn't "gel" in my mind right then that I hadn't really finished it, and -maybe even more importantly - hadn't told them the beautiful allegory it made.

Here's what I told them:  when we lived there years ago, I was down by the river alone one day and saw, off in the underbrush, what I thought was a turtle. I stepped carefully towards it and started reaching my hand out to touch it.  Suddenly several little Tsachi boys arrived, then ran over and started yelling "piní! piní" which means "snake"! Coiled up. A venomous "equis" (fer-de-lance).  The boys had saved my life.

The audience in the church reacted audibly as I acted out the story!  But the rest of it wouldn't shape itself in my mind, so I sat down and Germán spoke what was on his heart.  Later everything fell into place in my mind...but by then there wasn't an opportunity to continue the story.  How I regretted that!  I am praying that I can find the contact information for someone there to whom I can send the rest of my story so that they can share it with my Tsachi brothers and sisters.  (Will you pray, too?)

Here's what I will add:  Once I had backed out of range of the snake, we called my dad down, and  he killed it, killed the thing that could have killed his daughter.  God works like this often. We see something we think is wonderful and are attracted to it, and reach to check it out.  But as beautiful as it may seem, if it's harmful, God will send someone to warn us: what you admire is deadly!  He did that for me...literally!  But He does it in all areas of life.  Then,  just as my father came down and put himself between me and my danger, so our Father comes down and puts Himself between us and our danger, to shield and protect us.

This is exactly what God did for the Tsáchila, too. He loved them so much that, knowing that they didn't have His Word, and followed after things that were not good for them and would lead them to great harm, He sent someone to warn them...to give them the Word so that they could learn to listen to Him and distinguish between what is harmful and what is good.  He sent my parents...who also loved them so much that they persevered in translating His message to them.  Now the heavenly Father also shields and protects them.
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The other thing that happened?  This was a real treat. I had mentioned to my sister that Carán looked sort of like the friend I was looking for, so maybe she was a relative and could tell me about her. After the ceremony at the cemetery, I asked the Tsachi leader about the friend I remembered, telling him that I only knew her nickname, but that she had married...(I gave the name of her husband).  "Sure", said Primitivo, "I just saw her over here."  He looked around and called out, "Carán!"  Oh my goodness!  The lovely woman I had talked to and posed with!  No wonder she had looked familiar! She had been there with us the whole time, showing how pleased she was that we were there.
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God, You are more than awesome!  Thank You for caring so much for us that You warn us, shield us, protect us through life.  And for giving us little surprises like Carán to cheer us as we go!