Back to 5:00 – We head back to the ( first ) village, the one we are staying at. We arrive at 7:00 p.m. and as we pull up our jaws drop. Around 200 people are standing in the rain and have been for over 3 hours waiting for our arrival. We were not told the schedule before hand but apparently we were scheduled to talk to the widows and orphans. I was so humbled that these people had been waiting in the cold rain for 3 hours. Not waiting in a warm church building with seats and heaters. They had waited when they had nothing. No shelter. No seats. No jackets. No food. Not even lights. There was one tarp that they were trying to crowd in and hold over themselves. But the tarp was weak and the rain continued to heavily fall down.
To my best effort I tried to get people out of the rain and into the church. Again, this church was made our of sticks and straw so it had holes throughout, but it was shelter nonetheless. I laid potato sacks on the ground and tried my best to crowd people into the church. It didn’t work. We managed to get 80 people in the church but that still left over 100 people, in the rain. I went out into the rain to see if I could do anything. I passed by mother’s who were carrying infants on their backs while trying their best to soothe their baby who was wet and cold. I then passed by a women in her 90’s who was struggling to even stand. Her back was at a 90 degree angle and it was evident that she was in a lot of pain. She just stood there perfectly still as the rain poured onto her fragile body. She knew there was no shelter to run, this wasn’t her first rodeo. My heart broke for her along with the other hundreds of women and children that were there. I eventually found a small metal chair made for a toddler and a small corner under the tarp for her. I took her hand and lead her to the small place of refuge. She sat with great relief as her body had a second to recover. After my encounter with this lady I began to get overwhelmed. Tears that I could no longer fight started to come which went well with rain drops that were endlessly covering my face. This situation was too big for me. There was nothing I could do. As I left that woman’s side, I passed by one of my teammates and he said remember its in the Lord’s strength not ours. With dark cloudy skies above it was becoming very clear that it would be in the Lord’s strength to do anything. So I began to PRAY.
I prayed for the rain to end. It never did.
I prayed for the church to expand. It didn’t.
I prayed for food to appear. It never did.
I prayed for chairs to appear. They never came.
Before I preached to the widows the Lord spoke something over me that realigned my heart and focus to be on Him alone. He said, ” Katie, I know you don’t understand my power but that’s ok because it’s not your power to understand. Trust me for I am your sovereign God.” I was rocked when He spoke that. My need to understand His power fell to ground to It is not my power to understand any of it. For the first time in my life I started to understand that the Lord truly is Sovereign over all. He is sovereign over the angels and over Satan. He is even sovereign over ” chance “. He is in control over everything. He is the one who started the rains so of coarse he could put an end to them but He didn’t. He is Sovereign.
As I talked to the widows and orphans I was beyond humbled. I was in awe of their devoted hearts. We had no food to offer. Nothing material to give. All we had to offer was Jesus and that is exactly what they wanted. I could see their hunger for Him and I could sense their desire to go deeper in His spirit. Past the rain and everything that this world had to offer their eyes spoke, just give me Jesus. I shared with them the very thing the Lord was teaching me in that moment. That even if we have a lot of unanswered questions, and many why’s about their husbands death we can rest knowing that our God is in control. God is and always will be in control. It’s his control. His power nor ours to understand. With our unanswered questions we can rest in who our God is. He is a good God. He is a God that only wants the very best for us. He sees what we can’t see. He see’s the greater purpose for it all. He is God. He is worthy and holy. He is who He says He is. I tried to encourage their hearts to rest in His goodness and faithfulness. Then I shared with them what I saw as I was speaking to them. I saw Jesus. i saw him walking up to every orphan and widow and he was putting his hands on either side of their cheek and he was looking deeply into their eyes and speaking the same eight words to every person. ‘ There is no place I would rather be’ There is no place the Lord wanted to be more than in the cold rain holding the hand of every soul there. The Lord was speaking to every heart there and He was saying, just give me your heart. Just give me you.
That day wrapped up around 10:30 p.m and we were told that we would be leaving at 6:30 a.m. We went to sleep thinking our time at ” the village ” had ended. We were wrong. The Lord have even more to come. To be continued….
