So, this one time I got baptized at a children’s home on the top of a mountain in Swaziland.
Truth.
Among other things at El Shaddai, we are paired with a child who is grade 1 through 7. In the afternoons we hang out with them and help them do their homework. I am paired with a sweet 6th grade girl. By sweet, I mean that she is sassy and exactly like me. It is perfect.
A few of us who are with the middle school girls decided to start doing a bible study with them a few times a week. The first one was on Oactober 14. We talked about John 14 and how Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We were able to share with them some of our stories of how we came to know the Lord. The girls barely spoke. We asked question after question and every time we were answered with silence. We tried to tell them that their voice mattered to us and that we wanted to know what they thought, but we still got nothing. So we wrapped it up and ended with prayer.
Right after we finished, one of the girls told us to wait because we had forgotten to do something. She said, “We must sing!” So we sat back down and they began singing together. They had completely changed. They were belting it. I just wept.
It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
We were stunned as they continued to a second song. This one was called “There are no orphans”. I lost it. The chorus says, “there are no strangers, there are no outcasts, there are no orphans of God.” You can imagine hearing those words straight from orphans. From girls who have been hurt, abandoned, and neglected.
The Lord immediately convicted me. I had been so selfish in the things that I thought I needed and in the comfort that I sought. I was broken and then restored because of the hope that the girls represented. As Christians, myself included, we say all the time that we would be content if all that we had was Jesus. Up until that moment, I had never been honest when saying that.
That moment was a life changer. He used the voices of middle school girls to change me. It was the moment that led to me wanting to get baptized in Swaziland.
I had been baptized when I was 10, but that was previous to me following Jesus. I thought it would be cool to be baptized on the race, but wasn’t sure where or when it would be. It was clear to me then that El Shaddai was going to be the place.
So, in true World Race fashion, we found a pool that would hold enough water to put my head under, drug it to the place with the best backdrop, and rigged it to where it wouldn’t leak. I had 4 of my best friends on my squad be a part of it and it was beautiful.
At 2:30 in the afternoon on October 17, on the top of a mountain in Swaziland, I was able to declare how Jesus had changed my life.
-LD
