Ibu

The north side of Gallup is a working class neighborhood with homes built in the twenties and thirties near the coal mines of Gamerco and Coal Basin.  In addition, it has a lot of small businesses targeting the Native American clientele drifting south off the reservation.  Some of these businesses are great (tire and feed stores, barber shops) and some not so great (bars, pawn shops).  If you know anything about Gallup, New Mexico, you would know that alcoholics abound in this area. Nestled amongst all this hubbub is Casa San Martine, a soup kitchen started by Catholic Nuns of the same order as Mother Theresa (In fact Mother Theresa visited this outpost and Gallup twice in the 1980’s). During my days as National Honor Society mentor at Rehoboth High School, every year I led students on service projects to Casa San Martine to help the nuns serve meals and do wash.  It was great to roll up our sleeves and help cut vegetables, hang and fold laundry and then at 4:30 PM serve hundreds of drunks as they piled in to the mission. 

The nuns were always short, extremely hard working and almost always from places like India, Africa or the Philippines. They worked tirelessly except Thursdays (their day of prayer) and Sundays.  On days we were there, we observed the nuns constantly taking crap from rude drunks who harassed them 90 percent of the time and begged for prayers from them the other 10 percent.  I always wondered where these amazing servants came from and where they got their patience and disposition. 

Now I know.  

2 weeks after arriving here, Ibu Warshi began working for us. Almost every day since then, she has cooked and cleaned tirelessly around our house—without complaint and often amongst ours. 

Similar to the nuns at Casa San Martine, my 4 foot 7 inch Muslim maid has modeled Christ to me more than anyone else in my life.

By the way, Ibu in Indonesian is the title given to all adult women.  It means mother—Our entire family will greatly miss mother Warshi next year.