THE SCOPE OF MISIONS
Ed ited b y Oran 0 * Smith Chairman, Dept, of Missions, Biola Bible College
Venezuela Is My Home By Salma Souhi
S o many times as I have run down the stairway at B iola I have had to stop and tell myself, “ Salma, you are really here.” Sometimes I think it is a dream but understand that it is only the Lord showing me His power and mercy. Five and a half years ago I came to visit B iola with Mr. and Mrs. 01- vey, missionaries, to Venezuela, with whom I had lived most of my child hood and whom I called Mom and Pop because they had been like my own parents. They, were on furlough and had brought me to spend a year here in the States. As I looked at the school I did not know that some day I was going to be here preparing for His service. At the time I had not surrendered my life to the Lord and did not know the wonderful things that He had for me. We went back to Venezuela and a year later I was invited to the first Bible Camp held in Eastern Vene zuela. It was there that my life changed. I remember how the Lord spoke to my heart every night as the missionaries unfolded His precious Word. Finally the last night I could not resist any longer and I gave my life to the Lord. That same year I had the priv- lege of going to the school for mis sionaries’ children and doing my high school work there. It was lo cated at Las Delicias, Caripe. Our Bible Institute is located there. I lived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Tuggy who, through their love and under standing, helped me to grow in the knowledge of our Lord. We also had the privilege of taking Bible subjects along with our high school subjects. That first semester I asked the Lord many times to show me His will and He answered in a wonder ful way. One Sunday as I was going out from church I heard a little girl calling me. “Señorita, Señorita, I want to talk to you.” I asked her what she wanted artd she answered, “ Señorita, it is my mother who wants to talk to you. She wants to be sure to talk to you this afternoon when you go to give the children’s lesson at my home.” I assured her I would not forget.
The next day as we were eating our lunch we saw five boys and girls walk up to our gate and I recognized Ines, her brother, Juan and three of their little neighbors. They stayed with me all afternoon till five o’clock and that was the beginning of a little country school. The Lord had an swered my prayer. He had showed me, through a little girl, His will for me. More children kept coming and when I left last March there were 17 boys and girls of all ages in our school. These children belonged to the poor farmers that lived scattered on the hillside around our school. Some of them had to walk a long way to get to school. All of them worked at home in the morning and came to school in the afternoon. In some ways it was hard for me to go to school all morning, eat lunch in a hurry and run to teach till late in the afternoon. I came to realize that teaching was not spending hours in a classroom but that teaching chil dren was giving your whole life to them. Many times we had to take care of the sick or solve the many problems that came up every day. But all was not work. We had some fun too. Christmas was coming and we did not know what to plan to make last Christmas the happiest the children had spent. About three weeks before Christmas we were told that one of the American Oil Camps wanted to furnish gifts for the chil dren of our school. They sent three boxes full of gifts. We had a party for the children three days before Christmas and I have never seen chil dren as surprised and as happy as those children that afternoon. It was the first time that they had received gifts all wrapped in pretty paper. It was my happiest Christmas because I was seeing their happiness but there was something that really thrilled my heart. The next morning after the party we heard a knock at the door and when I went to open it there was Ines looking up at me with a gift in her hands. It was wrapped with the paper she had re ceived on her gift and it was tied CONTINUED ► 29
We had our children’s class and afterwards I went to their back yard where her mother was waiting for me. I did not realize then the im portance that conversation was going to have in my life. She looked up at me in an embarrassed way as if she could not find words to say what she wanted to say, but finally came out with words I shall never forget. “ Señorita, I wanted to ask you if you could take Ines as your own and teach her how to read and write.” For seconds I did not know what to answer. I was shocked! How could
The writer, now a student at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. I take a little girl eight years old as my daughter? I had had my seven teenth birthday that same month and how could I take a child as my own? I explained to her as sweetly as I could that I could not do it. I told her I was going to school myself. But then I looked at Ines’ sad eyes and I remembered I did have after noons free, so I said, “ Ines, you can come every afternoon to our school and I will spend an hour teaching you how to read and write.” Ines’ brother, Juan, was standing by and his eyes seemed to say, “ I want to go too.” So he was invited to come.
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