“I Don’t Know Jesus”

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, September 27.

By Andrew McChesney

K

aruuparerue (pictured to the right in the photo) is like any 7-year-old. She is happiest when she is playing; she is saddest when she is scolded; and she likes to eat macaroni. But she has never heard of Jesus.

Karuuparerue lives at a place that can’t be found on the map. She lives with her family on a homestead of four huts deep in the desert of northern Namibia. It takes seven hours to walk to the nearest store. Nobody in her family owns a car or even a bicycle. If they want to go anywhere, they usually have to walk.

Karuuparerue, however, doesn’t need to go to the store. Her family, like many people in her Himba tribe, rarely have money to buy anything.

Instead, the little girl spends the day helping her parents and five brothers and sisters raise goats and cows. When it’s rainy season, she also helps plant maize, which is a kind of white corn.

Maize is the family’s most important food. Karuuparerue helps Mom grind the maize into a flour and then cook it with water in a pot over an open fire. The maize and water cook together to make a delicious thick white porridge. For nearly every meal, Karuuparerue eats the porridge with sour goat’s milk or sour cow’s milk.

When the family does have a little money — perhaps Grandma got a pension payment from the government — somebody might walk the seven hours to the nearest store to buy Karuuparerue’s favorite food, macaroni.

“I like macaroni,” Karuuparerue said. “But we don’t eat it very often because we have to buy it, and we don’t have the money.

She is perfectly happy to eat maize porridge and sour milk every day. She thinks that they taste very good!

When the rainy season ends and the weather grows very dry, Karuuparerue and her family leave their homestead and wander around the desert in search of water and grass for their goats and cows. They travel for about eight months of the year. Then they return to their little homestead to grow maize during the next rainy season.

Most of the year is very hot because Namibia is in the desert. Karuuparerue’s only clothing is a piece of cloth that looks like a skirt. Everyone in her family dresses similarly. In the hot African sun, it’s more comfortable to dress lightly.

Karuuparerue’s hair is twisted into two braids that droop over her forehead. All little girls wear their hair this way. When she gets older, she will twist her hair into many, many braids like her Mom and Grandma. Like them, she will mix those braids with red clay that helps protect from insects and the harsh desert climate.

Karuuparerue is happiest when she gets to play. She likes to play a game with the other girls in which they clap their hands and dance and dance and dance. She also likes to play dodge ball. She and her friends made a ball of old rags, and they play dodge ball by throwing it back and forth.

Karuuparerue is saddest when she is scolded. Mom scolds her for playing when she should be doing her chores. Just the other day, Mom sent the little girl to the well with a plastic container to fill with water. It takes 15 minutes to walk to the well, and it takes 15 minutes to walk back. In all, the trip takes 30 to 40 minutes.

But Mom waited and waited for the girl to return with the water. Thirty minutes passed. Forty minutes passed. Mom suspected that something was wrong, so she left the homestead to search for Karuuparerue. She found the little girl playing dodge ball with her friends near the well.

“You foolish girl!” Mom cried, picking up a dry stick from the ground. “I’ll beat you!”

Karuuparerue began crying and ran away.

Mom didn’t chase or beat her. She just waved the stick in the air to show that she was very angry. Karuuparerue returned home with the water to help Mom make maize porridge for lunch.

Karuuparerue is about the right age to start school. The nearest public school is only a 20-minute walk from her hut. But Mom doesn’t want her to go. Mom thinks it’s a waste of time for her to learn to read and write. The family doesn’t have any books to read or any paper to write on anyway. It costs money to buy paper and school supplies like pencils. The family rarely has any money, so it is unthinkable to even think about spending money on school.

Mom thinks it would be better for Karuuparerue to stay at home to help fetch water and do other chores.

Karuuparerue also doesn’t want to go to school. She would rather play.

Because Karuuparerue has never gone to school, she cannot read. Her mom and her grandma also have never gone to school and cannot read. Because they cannot read, they have never read the Bible.

Grandma first heard about Jesus when a Seventh-day Adventist pastor visited the homestead. He invited her to come to a church that meets under a nearby tree on Sabbaths. Grandma asked the pastor to come back and teach her about Jesus from the Bible.

So, the pastor began giving her Bible studies. Grandma told Mom about some of the things that she was learning about Jesus. But Mom hasn’t had a chance yet to tell Karuuparerue. So, Karuuparerue, like many children in her Himba tribe, has never heard of Jesus.

“I don’t know Jesus,” she said. ⎭

Pray that Karuuparerue and many other children will know Jesus in Namibia and in the other countries of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Today’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help many children know Jesus by giving them their very own Adventurer’s Bibles. Children like Karuuparerue who cannot read may be able to learn about Jesus through a new series of short children’s videos about the fruit of the Spirit. Other Thirteenth Sabbath projects that we are supporting today include a center of influence in South Africa; and two hospitals, a new school, and a mission boat in Zambia. Thank you for your generous offering.