While in Swaziland, Katy Steele of 2014 K Squad prayed a dangerous prayer – to be more wrecked for the people of this world in the final three months of her Race than she was in the first eight.
While in Swaziland in April, I caught myself daydreaming a lot about life in the States. Then my parents showed up in Africa to join me for their first missions trip, and I saw their worlds get rocked.
Things that have become second nature to me were shocking to them: the poverty, the thatched huts, the dirt floors, the big bellies of hunger, the children left parentless by a generation lost to AIDS, and the way they clung to our arms and legs just to be touched.
I’ll never forget the day one little girl ran up to me with her arms outstretched. With the limited English she expressed the desire of her heart and stretched out her arms: “Touch me!”
What a joy to sit in the grass surrounded by the Swazi mountains and hold these kids in my arms.
I prayed a dangerous prayer leaving Swaziland: “God, wreck me more for your people the last three months than the first eight.”
I guess I forgot – God answers prayers.
A few weeks later, my squad left for Botswana. My team worked with an NGO who supports orphans and vulnerable children in the community through mentorship, feedings, after school care, youth programming–and above all–the love of Christ. This ministry is elbow-deep in the reality of poverty in Africa.
Our first week there, I had a break down. I saw more poverty in Botswana than any other country I’ve been in.
I was sitting in a village where we got to share the Word with a minority tribe, when God opened up my eyes. He let me know that he hates poverty, oppression, and the inequality of what man has made the world into even more than I do.
My heart broke all over again. Looking into the face of poverty, it makes your insides ache and your stomach turn.
It makes you wrestle with questions like, “Why them? Why do their lives have to be marked with so much suffering and hardship? Why do I have everything and they have so little?”
That’s why I sent my Son, He reminded me.
He showed me that even though these people lack resources, they don’t have to lack hope.
I love the poor. I love the dirty. I love the broken, he said.
I am here, Katy. I am the only One who can fulfill their needs. And I never run out or give up.
This is temporary. But I am setting everything right again.
When our hope is in God, whose resources are infinite, then poverty is only a temporary reality, even if it lasts for life. It is not an identity.
Rich or poor, our identities are quite simple and profound: loved.
In the midst of our world’s brokenness, this is my ultimate peace.
Have you ever prayed a “dangerous prayer”? How did God use your prayer to make a difference in you or someone else’s life? Please share in the comments below!
Is your dangerous prayer to go on the World Race? Click here to find out how you can go.
