The power that words have is
incredible. A conversation, or even just a statement a person makes,
can alter the course of someone’s life. If someone tells you
repeatedly that you are not capable of doing something, you will
start to believe it. On the flip side, all it might take for you to
follow your biggest dream is for someone to simply agree that it is a
wonderful dream for you to live out.
It was amazing to see what words of
affirmation could do for the women from Ocean View. These women live
in an extremely tough area. They are the strongholds of their
families. These women are trying to raise their children to become
men and women of God in a very poor and very violent community.
They rarely hear that they are doing a
good job.
They rarely hear that anyone is proud
of them.
They rarely hear that they have value
in their families, in their church, or in their community.
At our women’s Bible study, we had the
opportunity to express these things to the Ocean View women, and they
got to express these things to each other.
On the World Race, we like to create
fire tunnels. People make two lines facing each other, and, one by
one, people walk between those two lines. The people in those two
lines pray for the person walking by, and can stop them with
encouraging words from God. The Ocean View women did a fire tunnel at
the end of their Bible study. They spoke words of affirmation into
the lives of their friends. Some women heard for the very first time
that God’s grace and love is bigger than anything that holds them
back.
There were close to 50 women there, and
each of them left the Bible study with deeper heart knowledge about
the love of God. Each of them left with a deeper love for each other.
It was amazing to watch their tough exteriors melt away as they
lifted each other up in prayer, many with tears running down their
faces.
