As I shared in my previous blog, Missionary Bomb, my team was speaking to teenagers at Excel Boarding School about relevant issues in their lives. Cara, Rebecca and I had the girls and we were sharing testimonies, laughing, and having an awesome time!
While Cara was sharing her testimony, a teacher discretely walked to the front where Rebecca and I sat and slipped us a note:
Hey,
Praise God and thanks for you. I would like you to pass some pieces of advice to these students because most of them indulge themselves into relationships because of money. Well, most of them are from poor/humble backgrounds and this forces them to sleep with men for money in order to keep up with the standards of their friends. How can you help them get out of such?
With no warning, Reality grabbed and hurled us into the deep water and we had no idea how to swim. Help! I’m only a missionary – I have no idea how to handle this!
Rebecca and I turned to each other, knocked to the floor by how quickly our talk went from encouraging testimonies to hard-core reality. I felt overwhelmed and underprepared.
As Cara finished her story and sat down, unaware of the new turn our conversation was taking, I hesitantly rose from my seat and began fervently praying that God would give me something to say…
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…Romans 8
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 2:21
Those two verses flashed in my mind and the Lord spoke these words to my heart:
Tell them there is nothing they can do that would take away My love.
Tell them they are not too dirty, too shameful, or too sinful to turn Me away.
Tell them that I sent my Son to cover their sins so that when they put their hope in Me, I see them as perfect, lovely, and without flaw.
Looking back, I honestly can’t remember what I said or how those truths were phrased. All I know is the second my mouth opened, God took over and every word that fell from my lips was the Lord’s, not mine.
He spoke love over those girls.
He spoke truth over those girls.
He spoke grace over those girls.
He spoke that when we die to ourselves and Christ lives in us, we are no longer defined by our actions or our past. When He looks at His creation, He doesn’t see how we’ve messed up, or the dirty and shameful things we’ve done; all He sees is the blood of His beloved Son.
The Lord also spoke repentance over those girls.
If you repent I will restore you that you may serve me. Jeremiah 15
He spoke that command over them – to repent and turn away from old habits, old ways of life, and no longer being bound to those things. In Christ we are NEW CREATIONS; the old is gone, the new has come!
There are few times I felt the Holy Spirit as strongly as I did standing up and speaking to those girls, and I know with all my heart that God touched and changed lives that day.
Rebecca and Cara followed, also completely led by the Lord. They spoke words about comparison, deserving respect, and not settling for less than what God has for us.
To close our time together, we prayed over the girls. Immediately after the Amen they swarmed us with notes of appreciation and love, asking to be our “best friends for life” and saying how thankful they were that we came.
As the instant “Best Friends for Life” thing was happening, a girl pulled Cara aside. She began sharing her story, telling Cara how this older man had been pressuring her to sleep with him. She was confused and didn’t know what to do because he promised to pay for her school fees and other needs of her family. At 15 she already felt the pressure to provide for her family and she didn’t know what to do.
Cara had an amazing conversation with this girl; speaking truth and wisdom that the enemy had so deceitfully blinded her from.
Although my heart ached at the reality these girls walked in, I know God has them in the palm of His hand.
I know He has beautiful things planned for them.
I know Colossians 1:13 to be true for these girls:
For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
