This story was written by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema as a submission to the Climate Witness Project creation care worship resource collection. It could be read as children’s sermon or it could be printed on individual pages where kids or a Sunday School class could create their own illustrations. Kids could also be assigned parts and act the story out while another person reads it out loud. The story, inspired by a young girl named Magdalene who Sonya learned about while doing a different writing project, highlights our intimate draw to care for creation from a child’s perspective.
“Magdalene,” Mama says, “you are like the soil when the rains don’t come. You are thirsty.”
Mama is right.
I am thirsty.
Thirsty to learn how to grow food.
Food to help Mama and Papa feed our family.
Each day, I hear a lion
growling
rumbling
roaring
in my stomach.
I hear other lions
growling
rumbling
roaring
in the stomachs of
Mama
Papa
sisters
brothers.
I wonder, will the lions ever stop
growling
rumbling
roaring?
A whispering song answers inside of me:
Silence the lions, Magdalene!
Grow orange, and mango, and paw paw trees!
I sing the song again and again. It makes me happy.
After I sing it, I pray to Jesus for
orange trees
mango trees
paw paw trees
baskets full of fruit.
Fruit for Mama
fruit for Papa.
fruit for sisters
brothers
others.
One day, I walk home from the river with sisters and brothers.
Water in our jerry cans
splashes
sloshes
swishes.
In the village, women’s voices buzz like bees winging around our neighbor Mrs. Kayima’s fruit trees. Why are the women
buzzing
chattering
laughing?
We linger and listen. Then I understand.
The good news
sings
claps
dances
inside of me —
the Fruit Tree Lady is coming again!
We walk home. My song spills out:
“Silence the lions, Magdalene!
Grow orange, and mango, and paw paw trees!”
My sisters and brothers enjoy my happy song.
I teach it to them.
We sing it together.
It’s our song now.
When Mama and Papa come home from working in the sorghum fields, I ask,
“May I go?
May I go?”
Mama smiles and says, “You are like the soil when the rains don’t come. You are thirsty.”
Then I know the answer — Yes!
I may go because I am thirsty to learn how to grow food.
Food to help Mama and Papa feed our family.
The next morning we go
sisters
brothers
walking
dancing
running
to the village church.
We hear
buzzing
chattering
laughing.
We slip inside the church and sit close to Mrs. Kayima. She smiles at us.
The Fruit Tree Lady smiles at us, too. She is a special teacher who once came to show
Mrs. Kayima
and other mothers
fathers
how to grow
orange trees
mango trees
paw paw trees.
But Mama and Papa didn’t have a chance to learn.
They were
hoeing
watering
harvesting
in the sorghum fields.
We move closer to Mrs. Kayima. The Fruit Tree Lady will think we’re Mrs. Kayima’s children. Then we can
stay
listen
learn
receive
fruit tree seedlings:
orange
mango
paw paw.
When the Fruit Tree Lady holds up a box of
fruit tree seedlings,
my song shouts inside of me:
Silence the lions, Magdalene!
Grow orange, and mango, and paw paw trees!
I whisper-pray to Jesus again for
orange trees
mango trees
paw paw trees
baskets full of fruit.
Fruit for Mama
fruit for Papa.
fruit for sisters
brothers
others.
The Fruit Tree Lady buzzes happily as she talks about
making soil rich, richer, richest:
composting
mulching
Watering
so
orange
mango
paw paw trees
grow
grow
grow!
The Fruit Tree Lady asks Mrs. Kayima to
tell
share
show
how all her fruit trees
grew
grew
grew!
Mrs. Kayima
smiles
beams
glows
telling her story
of
making soil rich, richer, richest:
composting
mulching
watering
so her
orange
mango
paw paw trees
grew
grew
grew!
I close my eyes and dream of
oranges
mangos
paw paws
budding
dangling
hanging
on my family’s trees.
Mrs. Kayima sits back down
and says to me what I already know:
“Magdalene, you are
farmer
fruit-grower
hard worker.”
I sing my song to Mrs. Kayima:
“Silence the lions, Magdalene!
Grow orange, and mango, and paw paw trees!”
The Fruit Tree Lady hears me sing. She says,
“Sing your song.
We’ll sing along.
We’ll sing with hope,
Magdalene.”
I sing my song.
They sing along.
We sing with hope
to silence
growling
rumbling
roaring
hunger-lions.
The Fruit Tree Lady takes fruit tree seedlings from the box. She hands one each to
sisters
brothers
me
then
walking
dancing
running
we carry them
home.
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