COLORED boys are just as excited when the school holidays come as white boys are. At least you would have thought so if you could have seen Omonombe and his companions one day about the end of December four years ago.
The New Year holidays had arrived and the sixty boys in the African boarding school were about to disperse to their various homes for a week or two. There were no trains or busses. Indeed you would not have seen any trunks or suitcases, either, for the boys had -very few belongings, and they had to go home on foot.
The school- itself would have struck you as rather -funny with its mud walls and leaf roof, built in a clearing in the dense African forest. It was not a very string building, I'm afraid, for it blew down in a storm not long after. The boys have a new school now built of brick, with a leaf roof.
But where do the boys come from'? They come from villages dotted here and there in the forest — some quite near the mission and others only :reached after long hours, or even days, of walking through the dense forests. The missionary who taught the boys had learned to love them very much, and he had one deep longing in his heart. He longed to know whether these dear boys, who had been listening day by day to the gospel story, had really received the Lord Jesus as their Own Saviour, Soon he took the opportunity of asking each one as he left whether he had trusted in the Lord Jesus, Some said, "No"; others were not quite sure, and some were quite decided that the Lord Jesus was their Saviour.
Among the boys who were not decided was the lad named Omonombe. Later in the day, however, he came back to the missionary and said, "I wish to tell you that I am saved. I have decided for Jesus Christ." "When did you do that?" asked the missionary. "Just this afternoon. I was thinking of the five foolish virgins who were left outside, and I don't want to be left outside when the Lord Jesus comes."
The missionary was so very glad to hear this confession. Soon Omonombe turned to go away. He stopped, however, and looking back he said, "Please write it down in your book,"
Omonombe, you see, wanted this great event of his life to be recorded in writing by the missionary. Perhaps he did not know that his name was written, that very afternoon, in a far more important book——the Lamb's Book of Life.
Messages of God’s Love 6/19/1949