A Jon Post

There it was sitting in a cardboard box marked “Free”… a small fold-in-half checker/chess board. Just the week before I had learned the Mozambican method of playing checkers using bottle caps and a tattered old cardboard box with a checkers board drawn on it in fading ball point pen ink. When I saw the plastic board I immediately thought of the men at the hospital and figured it would be a nice upgrade from their torn cardboard. The actual checker pieces were missing but the nice, bright, glossy squares were more than enough turn my eye, put my hand into the “Free box” and tuck the board under my arm.

I left the garage/home sale (some missionaries were leaving town and were trying to get rid of the things they would not be taking with them) and, upon arriving home, promptly forgot I had the checkers board. It lay dormant under the stairs for weeks until, upon a thorough cleaning of the house, I stumbled upon it again and, not thinking much about it, put it near the door so I would not forget to take it to the hospital with me.

When I arrived with it the next day, most of the men I played checkers with were already outside playing on their makeshift cardboard set. Metal bottle caps hoped across the board and turned upside-down when they finally reached the other end to become little queens.

When they noticed the checkers board under my arm most of them thought it was a strangely patterned Bible (because it folded down the middle to form a book shape). When I held it in my hands and offered it to a boy named Edson (only 13 years-old but surprisingly good at checkers) and the group finally realized what it was, grins broke out all around and the cardboard was swiftly swept away and little metal bottle caps were soon flying across our new (well… used, but new to our group) checkers board.

Today, three months later, I have played countless games (and lost nearly all of them… these guys are GOOD) and seen more smiles than I can remember from across this little piece of plastic. When the hinge broke that held the fold together in the middle, I showed up with my soldering iron and, to thunderous applause, soldered the little pin back inside to hold it together so we could continue playing.

Over a game of checkers I have heard about a lovely wife at home, and what is growing at home on the farm. I have heard men tell me about their fears for their future, and their desire to be healthy. I sat quietly as a boy told me about how afraid he was that he might never play soccer again because his leg may be amputated. I laughed and clapped a man on the back as we joked about how strange my own culture is. I wept quietly as a brother told me about his child he has never met because it was born 6 months ago… and he has been here 8. I have spoken of the love of a Savior, I have spoken of death, life, family, solitude, cancer, angels, demons, war, sacrifice, pain and peace.

What a strange job I have.

I love it.