Season of Blessing (36 page)
The package
from León came on a day when Sylvia desperately needed it. A week after her chemo, she hadn't bounced back, and the pain in her liver had grown more intense. Her back had begun to hurt so badly that she could hardly stand up straight, and she'd started having headaches that wouldn't let go.
The package made her get out of bed, and when Harry pulled the video out, she actually managed to get dressed and put on her wig.
“Call Annie,” she said. “I want her to come watch it with us.”
Annie dropped everything and hurried over. She sat on the love seat next to Sylvia, watching the children they had ministered to so diligently for the last year of her life.
Each child had a message for Mama Sylvia. Juan, her favorite who rarely left her side when she was there, smiled into the camera. In Spanish, he blurted, “Mama Sylvia, one of the new doctor men gave us Reeses. I saved half of mine for you.” He held up the half-eaten peanut butter cup. “Please hurry back. It smells very good.”
For the first time in days, Sylvia laughed out loud.
“I have to go back there,” she said. “I can't even fathom the thought that I'm never going to see them again.”
“Me, too,” Annie whispered. “As a matter of fact⦔
Sylvia looked up at her. “As a matter of fact, what?”
Annie sprang to her feet. “As a matter of factâ¦I've told Josh so much about León and the children and the clinic. And he's studying to be a doctor, you know. And then we found out that some of the doctors at our church were getting up a medical missions trip to work at Dr. Harry's clinic, and he decided he wanted to go with them.”
Sylvia brought her hands to her face. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. And I'm going, too.” She struck a pose, then screamed. “Can you believe it? I'm going back! We're going during Christmas break this year!”
Sylvia got up slowly, her face glowing with delight. “Oh, Annie. That's wonderful. You can help so much, since you know where everything is. You can take presents to the children from me, and bring back news.”
“Oh, yeah. I'm going for the kids. I mean, it'll be fun going with Josh and everything, but he'll be busy at the clinic. I just want to spend the whole time at the orphanage, and hug those precious children, and get to know the new ones.”
“New ones,” Sylvia said. “I guess there are new ones. A whole bunch of them who don't know anything about me.”
Annie's smile faded, and her eyes rounded. “I'll tell them about you. And that you'll be coming back soon.”
Sylvia hugged her. “Now don't you two fall head over heels in love and go off and get married in Nicaragua. Your mother would never forgive me.”
Annie laughed. “Yeah, that'll be the day. Talk about giving my mom a heart attack. I'd never do that to her.”
“Don't do it to me either,” Sylvia said. “I want to be at your wedding.”
“Whenever it is, and whoever it's with, you'll be there, Miss Sylvia. I wouldn't have it without you.”
But that night, as she lay in bed, trying hard to sleep through her pain, Sylvia had the shivering, dreadful feeling that she wouldn't make it to Annie's wedding day.
She might not even make it to Christmas.
When Miva
come back?” Bo's question came as he sat in the circle in their classroom, each of the children clutching the wordless book they kept in their cubbies. Tory looked around, wondering how much to tell them about Sylvia's decline. With each passing day, Sylvia grew more ill, but Tory could hardly speak of it without her throat tightening.
“Miss Sylvia's not feeling well. We've got to keep praying for her. And she would like it if we kept reading the book she gave us.”
Carefully, Tory went through the wordless book, letting the students call out what each page meant, just as Sylvia had taught them. When she'd finished, she sent the children back to their desks. But Bo hung back, looking at her through the thick lenses in his glasses. She hoped he wasn't going to ask her about Sylvia again.
“What is it, Bo?”
“I wanna new hawt.”
Tory's eyes rounded, and she bent toward him. “What did you say?”
“I want Deezus give me new hawt.” He turned to the white page and pointed to it.
Tory got down on her knees in front of the child, and looked him in the eye. “You want a new heart? Why, Bo?”
He shoved his glasses up on his nose. “My hawt ditty.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she touched his shoulder. “You're heart's dirty?”
He nodded. “Deezus give me
new
hawt.”
Tory looked up and her eyes met Linda's. She saw the teacher grab the camcorder, cut it on.
Yes
, she thought.
This is one of those moments we'll want to remember
. She cleared her throat. “You can have a new heart, Bo. All you have to do is ask Jesus. Tell him to take your dirty heart out and give you a clean, new heart. And he will.”
Bo grinned, and his eyes grew wider. “And he wive in me?” He tapped his heart. “In here?”
“That's right. He'll live with you in there. Right inside of you. Every day of your life.”
“Den I go heben,” he said.
“That's right. And then you'll go to heaven.”
Tory struggled to keep herself from crumbling right in front of the child. What would Sylvia do now? she wondered. She would pray. Yes, she would pray with little Bo.
Her voice came out on a whisper. “Let's pray right now, Bo, and we'll ask Jesus to take out your dirty heart and give you a clean one.”
The little boy knelt in front of her just as she had done, and folded his hands.
“Deezus,” he whispered, and he began to pray his own Down's Syndrome version of the sinner's prayer.
When they came out of the prayer, Tory's face was wet, and she desperately needed a Kleenex. Bo went to tell his friends about his new heart, and Tory got to her feet. She looked at Linda again. Still holding the camcorder, the teacher hugged Tory. “Do you realize what you just did?”
Tory laughed through her tears. “Do you realize what
Bo
just did? And all this time I thought these children weren't capable of making a decision for Christ.”
“In Bo's case, you were wrong,” Linda said. “I made this video so we could show it to his parents. I thought it would mean the world to them.”
“Can we make a copy?” she asked. “I'd really like to show it to Sylvia. It's only right that she should see the fruit of her labors.”
“You bet,” Linda said. “I'll have you a copy made by the time you leave the school this morning.”
That night
,
Cathy, Tory, and Brenda got together to visit Sylvia. Pain twisted Sylvia's face, but she made a valiant effort to smile around it. When they showed her the video of Bo praying, she started to weep.
The other three passed a box of tissue around.
“You know something, Sylvia?” Tory got the video out of the VCR. “Other than Spencer and Brittany, Bo's the first person I've ever led to Christ, and you did most of the work.”
Sylvia waved a hand, as if that was ridiculous. “Oh, I didn't. All I did was read him a book. God did all the work.”
“But isn't it amazing,” Tory said, “to think that a little boy like that with such a simple mind could grasp something so profound?”
Sylvia smiled. “God showed you this, Tory, so that you'd know that he'll be able to do the same thing with Hannah when she's older. This was God's way of telling you to instruct Hannah in the ways of salvation, even though she'll always be so childlike. Let's watch it again.”
Tory put the video back in and rewound it. While they waited, Cathy took Sylvia's cold hand. “Sylvia, you're my hero.”
Sylvia frowned at her. “Why on earth?”
“Because even when you've been fighting the hardest battle of your life, you were out there teaching children about Christ.”
Brenda concurred. “You were, Sylvia. Most of us would have been licking our wounds, but your mind has always been on everyone else.”
Sylvia smiled. “If you only knew. I've thought about myself. Trust me.”
They watched the video again, sniffling and wiping their eyes. Finally, when it was over, Sylvia said, “Let's pray. Come here, all of you. Let's get in a circle and pray like we used to on Brenda's front porch.” The women came around her and held her hands.
“God showed Tory a miracle today,” she whispered. “But I'm asking for one more.” She knew they all expected her to ask for healing, but she had something else on her mind. “There's one more person that I want to see saved before I die.”
“Who's that?” Cathy asked.
Sylvia looked at Brenda. “I want to see David come to know the Lord.”