I really don’t know how to sum up this week.
It’s by far been my favorite stretch of time on the race.
I don’t want to leave… Which I didn’t expect to say ever on the race, let alone because of a ministry I’ve spent only 3-4 days with.
These girls are incredible.
I’ve been trying to write a blog and I’m trying to write now and I really don’t know what words to use.
I loved sitting in our first meeting as just racers and getting to meet Kenny and hear him talk about his girls and the love and passion he has for each one of them. I loved hearing his heart for the daughters not yet home. I loved hearing the way they use their lives to share good news. And then getting to be a part of that lived out.
I loved getting to walk into these girls homes and experience the warmth that surrounds them. I loved getting to eat a meal together that first night and laugh as we started to get to know each other. I loved standing in one of their kitchens singing and using cups and water bottles as microphones. I loved worshiping in their home with our entire group along with all their girls and seeing their love for Jesus come alive in that form of worship.
I love that these girls are excited to go back to the dark places and bring other girls out. I love that we got to go with them by our side. I loved getting to watch as Joe would take over and share with the bar girls about Wipe Every Tear and about her own story of leaving the bars. I loved getting to see her walk in that freedom and authority… It didn’t phase her, it was all so natural, so loving and so bold.
I loved sitting in these bars loving on the girls … And actually getting to offer them a way out. I loved feeling Papas heart break at each place we went…and feeling the joy and pleasure he took in each one of them. I loved the atmosphere. The clear presence of darkness … The night, bright lights, loud music… I loved picking up on the things specific to each bar we went – and I loved feeling the Kingdom of light radiate and explode as we walked in and engaged. As we walked up and down the street. I loved feeling and seeing Heaven invade earth and Papa walk into each one of these places and call His daughters home. I loved watching hope come alive in each girl that we talked to. I loved dancing on the stages with the girls and changing the scene…I love the smells left on my clothing each night.
I loved being in my element and where my heart loves. I loved seeing my dad come with me and I loved that he jumped in and didn’t hold back. I loved that Papa broke his heart in two days. I love that I have memories of him in these places being an example of a good father to these girls. I love that I couldn’t of had the same experience if he hadn’t come. I love that he was willing to go back to the ATM a couple different times because there were girls who needed to come down off stages those nights. I love that he got to see and experience that part of my world and heart.
I love that the other morning we had to wait an extra hour for girls to come and join us on the buses. I love that 38 came and saw that what we had been telling them about and what we had been offering them is indeed real. I love that so far three have decided to leave the bars and I love that so many more of that 38 will probably be making that same decision in the next month … And even more as they continue to go into the bars.
I love that I’m speechless at the end of this week… I love that it hit a place in me that I’m not sure what’s next or what to do with it. I love that instead of saying “goodbye” to these fearless women of Papas, I’m confidently saying “ill see you soon”.
I love what The Lord is doing here and I love that street in Angeles city.
I loved every minute of those nights…
It’s hard to leave all of that… It’s hard to have names, faces and stories of girls I met who are still at the bars floating in my heart as we leave.
I don’t know how to lay such a big piece of my heart down as we finish these three months yet.
