329
October, 1944
Rosalia By
EUNICE VICTORIA PIKE
if Rosalia would loveN Him as her Saviour, He would take her to live with Him in heaven some day. Nearly all of Rosalia’s little Indian friends and their mothers and fathers worship the sun. When one of thé missionaries told Rosalia thât the sun was not a god, but that our God, the heavenly Father, had made the sun to keep us warm, and to cause the grass and flowers to grow, Rosalia was surprised. ■She exclaimed, “That’s' wonderful! The heavenly Father must be a very strong God to be able to make the sun. He must be loving and kind, too. I want to hear more about Him.” At another time the missionaries taught'her the verse, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). She especially liked the part “and thy house.” She knew that itf meant her little sister and her mother and father. Tlje verse said that they could all be happy together forever, if they all loved the Lord Jesus. Almost every day this little Indian girl learned more about Jesus. Once her own little bed helped to' teach her a lesson. Rosalia sleeps on a straw mat which she spreads out on the dirt floor at night. When it ¿s timé for her to get up her mother calls, “Get up, Rosalia. Pick up your bed!” Then Rosalia gets
is doing her share of the work. Each morning and evening she hangs a water jar down her back, held by a strap on her héad, and she goes down the hill for water. Coming back, she puts her arm over the top of her head and holds it to help her neck bear the weight of the water. , One morning Rosalia put on her shawl and set out with her basket. She was going to the market to buy lard. The shawl was very helpful. It kept her warm, and it covered her bas ket so that no one could see what she had bought. On the way back from the market, Rosalia, stopped to call on the mis sionaries who lived near her home. They were different from any people she had ever seen before, and she liked to watch them. They sat and wrote on paper. They said that there was a book that was God’s Word and that God wanted everyone to read it. They were writing it in the Mazateca language, so that she, her mother and father, and all the other people of that tribe could read it. At first Rosalia had been afraid of the missionaries, but after she 'had watched them a While she had gone upland felt of their hands. She wanted to know if their white skin felt like, her brown skin. It did. When the mis sionaries smiled at her she felt right at home and began to ask questions like this about the things they had in their house: “What is that? How much did it cost?” \ : Often after that, Rosalia stopped to see her new friends. One day one of the missionaries said to héñ “It’s so nice up in heaven! Are you going to go there some day?” Rosalia had never heard of heaven. She asked, “What road do we take?” The missionary told her about the Lord Jestis'.and about His saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). She said that the Lord Jesus was the way to heaven and that
DOWN in Mex ico lives a little Indian girl named Eosalia. She b e- longs to the Maza- teca (Ma-za-TAY- ka) tribe, and her home , is a little hut in the moun tains. The roof is made of dfy'sug ar cane leaves dou bled over bamboo poles. It is about eight inches thick, a n d t h e leaves rustle when t h e wind blows. The walls are made of t h i n boards The boards were
chopped out with a hatchet-like knife, and their unevenness makes nice peek holes. Without being seen herself, Ro salia can watch through the holes in the wood and can see when anyone goes up the trail past her house. Some times she has fun calling out to them, and seeing them look about in a puz zled way. They cannot see who is talk ing to them. The floor of the house is dark-brown earth packed hard. Rosalia helps to keep it tidy by sweeping it with a bundle of twigs. All the why around the house is a lit.tle, ditch. The ditch keeps the rain running away from the house rather than into it. There is no stove, but Rosalia’s mother cooks over a fire that is built on top of the floor. Three big stones are in the center of the fire, and the bean pot is set on top of them. If her mother is busy she tells Rosalia, “Go blow up the fire.” Then Rosalia gets down on her hand§ and knees beside the fire and blows into the ashes. This makes the flames come" up around the pot and sets the beans to boiling again. Rosalia is only six, but already she
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker