Once a missionary told about his journey to a small and poor village in South Africa. He visited the local school. In class there were more than 100 pupils. Nobody had textbooks. Nobody had school bags. Most of them had a dirty plastic bag, inside which was a paper notebook and a pencil. Some did not even have this basic equipment. There were also two boys sitting next to each other. At the beginning of the lesson the teacher asked the pupils to take out their notebooks and pens. Both of the boys took out their notebooks. One of the boys had a pretty new and long pencil. But the other boy did not have a pencil at all. When the boy with the pencil realised that his friend didn’t have a pen, he immediately cut his own pen into two pieces. He gave one of the pieces with its sharpened head to his friend. Then he sharpened the other piece with his teeth so that he could write himself. When the missionary saw this, he wept. He wept with joy that one of the boys helped the other, even though he himself had so little. But the missionary was weeping too, because he realised that he himself might possibly not do the same for someone else. It is so difficult to give away something that has oneself… Read more about Ari Savuoja’s message on Sunday, 18 October 2015 (BF).
