Doreen’s Oreo Cookies (Stories from East Africa)
August 10, 2009
This is Doreen. She works the land next to the future site of Miracle House in Nakuru, Kenya. When we were praying for the land, she saw us and yelled across the barbed wire fence, “come, help me hoe the ground!”
My friend and co-leader, Brian Fields and I looked at each other with inquisitive faces and answered our own question as we walked over and shimmied our way through the tangled, barbed mess of wires.
After spending some time working the field with her, she asked us, “do you have any sweets?” I handed her a bag of Oreo cookies, not thinking twice about it, and was confused when she said, “what is this?”
“Oreo cookies.”
“Are yo cookies?”
“Oreo cookies. They’re good, try one.”
As she peeled open the dark blue foil wrapper and pulled an Oreo out, there was this split second of awe on her face as she looked at the thing. It was like catching a glimpse of someone’s reaction to watching the opening scene of Braveheart for the first time even though you’ve seen it hundreds of times.
She bit into the cookie and an instantaneous smile curled around the half-eaten cookie as she started savoring the flavor.
“Its so sweet!” she exclaimed.
If only I could savor the little things in life like that.
©2009 Fuller Youth Institute