Necklaces have a special place in my heart. Of course I love all jewelry but to me there’s always a deeper inspiration behind the face of the piece that goes around the neck. These trinkets are the most ideal for they do not get in the way much like rings when you’re using your hands or bracelets when using your arms. There is one particular necklace that I will be speaking about in this article. It has a black sort of rope material which holds a blue “granite” cross from Chile and a charm that has the word engraved in it “beautiful.” This charm I received from a dear friend that joined me as a teammate in Guatemala last summer. Her mother makes jewelry and as a way to reach out to the team, she made one specially for each us with prayer as their decision for the word. I wear/wore this necklace quite often, sometimes not even taking it off for a week at a time… joined by other necklaces. However, there is something exceptional about the gift of giving, and I feel like this gift especially was so dear to me that it was meant to be passed on to someone else who now needed it more than I did.
On Monday, September 25th the squad and its entirety were to listen to The Lord as to what ministry they were to accomplish that day. I got an image of worshiping at the kombi stop (kombi is the public transportation in Swaziland) along with my friend Lissie while she was to be praying over the locals. I spoke to her about it and she replied that we were to also stop by our care point for a prayer walk. I talked to Makennah about it as well as she felt led to go to Gogo Agnes’ (Gogo means grandmother and it is what everyone young person calls an elderly individual) and see if she needed us to do anything for her as an act of service. I expressed to my lovely teammates about God wanting to pass on my precious piece of jewelry to another. As Gods confirmation, Lissie declared to me that Abba was teaching her about goodness, giving, and healing and the fact that she saw a cross necklace as a vision from God. I was struggling with giving this special artifact away, the thought was almost leaving me in tears, however, nothing belongs to me because everything is under the ownership of God. So off we left for a day of walking by faith and merely listening to Jesus for His will be done. Walking up to our care point, Mbfutu, we spotted a few little African children running towards us with not only a smiling mouth but smiling eyes as well. When they see us they see the Jesus in us, I pray they look to Jesus as their hope for their future and not people. I took a child by the hand teaching him to run his hand along side the building as I prayed for blessings and protection. After two laps around the compound there were three children of whom I got to hold hands with and pray over. The power of prayer is something special, something sincere, something genuine to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next stop was Gogo Agnes’ house. We arrived at her house but she was not there. So on we went to the kombi stop where there was a woman awaiting. She wanted me to play my guitar and so together we worshiped for a few minutes. Lissie asked her if she needed prayer and she openly replied, “HIV.” This is uncommon for people to speak of this because it is usually a sensitive subject, they often find shame in their condition. After praying I knew this was the woman who was to receive Gods gift from me. Although she spoke little to no English, I was able to communicate that the charm said beautiful and that she was beautiful and loved by The King. We hopped on the kombi and headed to “save mor,” the local grocery store. It was there we decided to buy Gogo Agnes groceries because a few days earlier she wanted to give us tea or sustenance but had nothing to offer. We bought her jugs filled with water, tea, bread, milk, peanut butter, and a few other goodies and jumped back on a kombi to her house. We left her the items and an anonymous letter. Written on the letter was words of encouragements and inspirational Bible verses. However she found out it was us because her grandson tattled on us, but she sent a letter back brought to us by her grand daughter saying how thankful to God she was for provision. Our day of ministry was finished. I hope and pray that we reached many and that my necklace, nay… God’s necklace, changes that woman’s life. Just trust and obey and walk by faith for He establishes our steps.
