The Message on the Melon

The following is a read aloud story for November 2005. This is one of a series of stories especially written for Awana Clubs, home-schoolers, Sunday school classes, VBS, mission conferences, or just the fun of reading about children in a wild land called: “The Amazon Rain Forest”. Print them out. Collect them. E-mail them to others who have children and would like to get these stories. Use them for the glory of God! The Asheninca people, one of the many great Amazon Rain Forest tribes, have lived for centuries in a world of superstition and fear. The following story is true. It actually happened. I was there. I was the old white-haired missionary in the boat with Noena.
The old story teller, Douemi (Dough-way-MEE)
(Missionary/cultural observer with the Amazon tribes for many years)
Serving with New Tribes Mission, Sanford, Florida

Noena (No-EH-nah) sat in the dirt of her village yard and watched the blackened old pot boiling. It was “cotsonaqui”…the brown dye that the Asheninca people use to color their robes. She had gone with her aunt to gather the bark of the “patsataqui” tree to make the dye. Now it was bubbling and boiling and kind of fun to watch. She took a stick and slowly stirred around making sure the robe in the brown liquid was getting thoroughly covered with the dye. Then she looked up at the old white foreigner sitting at Little Mike’s house eating peanuts with him. Who was this stange man who kept coming back to her village? He always carried around a little book and made scribbles on it. He always was watching her and interested in everything that she did. Noena was 10-years-old and that is a magic age when you are almost an adult and almost a child. Some of each. She stirred the pot and took a puff on her little pipe. I wish, she thought, that I could just take that white man and stuff him into this pot of dye and make him come out all brown! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? He looks so sick and so pale. Why is that foreigner so different and so white?
The very next day the whole village was filled with excitement. They had decided to go up the Jurua River to Peru and visit Asheninca at a bigger village. Noena was so excited and quickly got her “melon baby”. She carried a watermelon in her carrying strap as that watermelon had become her doll…her make-believe baby. She and the melon baby were never far apart. Now she made her way down to the open canoe with the others who were going on the trip. Oh, look, the old white foreigner is going too!! And when they all got in the long dug-out canoe it was so packed and so heavy there was hardly room to wiggle. And to Noena’s horror she had to sit next to the white man on the same bench. She would try to ignore him as best she could. So the trip began with people shouting and laughing and having to jump out now and then to push off unseen sand bars. On and on they went up the river under that hot burning sun.
Noena fell asleep. Her head bobbed this way and that way and finally came to rest on the shoulder of the white man. But she was soundly asleep and unaware of where that head had gone. The old white man looked down affectionately at the little black-haired girl in the little brown robe and he loved her. Seeing that her melon baby was exposed the old white man found a bit of a stick and began to scratch on the melon three symbols. I-heart shape-U. He worked hard to make the impression look nice…I Love You. Noena slept on. Suddenly the canoe hit an unseen log and everyone about tumbled into the river, but being very agile and use to river travel soon it was all stabilized and back to the normal river boredom. Except Noena was awake. Her fingers ran over the I-heart shape-U that had suddenly appeared on her baby. Where did that come from? Who did this to her baby? The old white man seemed to not notice. WHAT DID THAT WRITING MEAN? To her it meant nothing. But could it be some secret message? Did a passing tree scratch it on her baby’s skin when she was sleeping? What did it mean? She sighed and held her melon baby closer. I Love You. She would never be able to comprehend that message on her melon baby. Or one day…maybe…one day she would!!!
I Love You! Isn’t that about the most wonderful message God has ever scratched on the skin of your heart? Isn’t it a shame that little boys and girls around the world have never been able to comprehend that message from God? Write it on a piece of paper…I heart-shape U. I Love You! Noena perhaps will someday understand the message on her melon baby. Missionaries are now in her village learning her language so they can tell her of Jesus and His love for her. Noena’s melon baby will quickly rot away and be gone. But when God writes “I Love You” on our hearts, it is there forever. Have you noticed? Have you looked at the skin of your heart to see the I heart-shape U written there??