These past two
months have zoomed by. October,
Guatemala, I was in a little jungle village helping construct the foundation of
a church. Last month I was in the slums
of Costa Rica, helping mentor to teenage girls who have been brought up in a
society where sexual abuse, rape, and self esteem abuse is typical for every
female to go through, young or old. I
ministered through building relationships and trust with these girls for the
three weeks I was there. And I have
learns that all the games, all the singing, and all the fun times that we had
together will mean nothing in the end unless there is that relationship built
to stand firm in the end. It is
different from children’s ministry. With
children’s ministry, relationships are built with time and fun/sweet memories
but with teenage girl ministry, relationship are built with trust, sharing
hearts, listening, crying, laughing, understanding, counseling…. So this last months ministry was about
building relationships and witnessing through mentoring, counseling, and life
example. I’ve seen their hearts changed
and lives directed to Christ. I’ve seen
the Holy Spirit speak to each one of the girls a new revelation of Christ’s
love for them. I’ve seen them listen
intensely to our testimonies as we share what the Lord has done in our
lives. I’ve seen them cry and pray
fervently with all their might for the Lord to reveal Himself to them in a new
way and show them how to forgive, love, heal their hearts, life righteous, and
grow in their faith.
Every morning around
9, I would go to a teenage girls Bible Study held in a little classroom at the
New Horizon school. Normally I go as a
translator for my teammates who want to share a testimony or lesson to the girls. But on this day, I was given the opportunity
to speak life into these girls through examples of what the Lord had done in my
life; and I saw lives impacted. I spoke
about my life pre-adoption, about the physical abuse and life threatening
events that went on, about God’s love, closeness, faithfulness, and purpose… I
spoke about how God was guarding and protecting me even from the womb… How He
placed me in a perfect family who would love, nurture, and kept me… I testified of God’s miracles and
work in my body, mind, spirit and how it all happened to give glory and honor
to God… How salvation and faith was established in many people who were
witnesses… my loneliness and troubled time in school for being different from
other kids… and more. It took everything within me not to break
down and cry as I told them many things that the Lord did in my life. To see their faces, some crying, some in awe,
some relating exactly. Afterwards, I
gave opportunity for questions and comments and was shocked at what some had to
say. There was one girl who was having
trouble forgiving her parents for what they did to her and her little
sister. And she said that my words of how God taught me how to forgive helped her
learn that forgiveness is not impossible no matter what happens in our
lives. And that God was with her and
her sister during those times. Before,
she didn’t really know what it was in her heart that was hurting her and her
little sister so much. She would just
tell her sister “just forget about what happened and don’t talk about
it.” But I explained that by
pushing that pain back and ignoring it, the pain will never go away and your
hurt will always follow you. This was
the first time someone explained to her the process of forgiveness. The freedom of forgiveness. She said she wanted to walk in that freedom
of forgiveness also. We prayed for those
spiritual bondages in her and her sister’s life to be broken, and she received that freedom of forgiveness
for the first time in her life. She wept
and wept and wept with joy. If this
whole years mission that I am on, was just for this girls life to received that
freedom, it was all worth it. If my
whole life was created just to bring this girl the Spirit of Christ, then it
was all worth every moment. But the Lord
did not just stop at that girl…
Another girl was crying and having a hard
time speaking but in her broken sentences said that she has experienced
physical abuse throughout her whole life. She now has a child and a baby, both
by being raped by her dad. Every time
she looks at her children, she sees them as a remembrance of those horrible
years in her life. She said, “As
though my children are only scars to me to remind me of what happened to me in
my horrible life”. But in my
testimony I spoke of my scars and described them as something beautiful. That our scars are a reminder of God’s
healing, blessing, and faithfulness. That it just doesn’t remind us of the painful action that took place but
that it shows of God’s strength and
restoration in our lives. She was
sobbing when she gave me a hug and thanked me for showing her a better way to
see her past and most importantly, a better way to see her children. To see them with love and as a blessing from
the Lord. The Lord restored to her what
was lost through having these children. A daily reminder not of the painful past but of the faithfulness of forgiveness. Several other girls spoke of how they
related also and the whole room was crying. The Spirit of God moved powerfully that morning with new revelations, bondages broken, and
freedom received. Forgiveness,
deliverance, healing, restoration, love;
most importantly love was poured out on these girls that day. It was beautiful.
