My thoughts as we just left our ministry site yesterday morning:
we believe in a God that leaves the ninety nine for the one.
“Then Jesus told them (the tax collectors) this parable: ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” Luke 15: 3-7.
I say hallelujah because God is so vast that He heals fifteen people in Shakawe and saves the masses (these things actually happened in our other teams scattered throughout Botswana, check out haileygrimm.theworldrace.org/ for some beautiful stories of miraculous salvation action!!). That does not mean that I withhold saying hallelujah when God’s seemingly less exciting character of seeking out the hurt- the ones of the margins of society in one way or another, the widows and orphans and poor of heart…I say hallelujah just as loudly to the work that I, along with the twelve other women I’ve been living with were invited into. HALLELUJAH to our God!! He is so vast, yet indescribably intricate. We believe in a God who is mind blowing in magnitude, creating strange, over my head testimonies of drastic revivals and redemptions, but, He is not limited to that sort of action. He is also a God that does not leave behind one. Not one. Who am I to devalue the work of the kingdom that is not, at face value, miraculous and numerous and glamorous?! Who am I to think that it is not worth it to be called across the world, brought to Africa, to simply uplift and give love- family kind of love, the kind that is warm and rich with life- to three women in Seronga? Who am I to be above God’s character of intimacy, His desire to uplift and care for every single child of His?
I guess I didn’t realize I signed up for the World Race to spend November and December being a daughter and sister to Ma Willie and Arista and Simone. I guess I didn’t realize we would be working on land to make sure that the government wouldn’t take it away by 2018 in the mornings and going to play with little ones in the afternoons and that’d be about all of the tangible ministry we’d be participating in. I guess I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be a part of some enormous come to Jesus moments where half the village hears the name of God for the very first time and it tastes so sweet and is so alluring they couldn’t not commit their lives to the hope they’ve found. I have God sized dreams like that, and I don’t see them as unhealthy. But. Amid those God sized dreams, I can not and will not devalue the Kingdom work that I participated in over these last two months. God wanted me (and my twelve other sisters) to go to Seronga. He wanted that to happen because He wanted us to be His hands and feet; He wanted to care for His hurting daughters. He chose us. That’s an honor. An honor I cannot fully wrap my mind around, yet I see deep, real value in.
We left the ninety nine. While these women weren’t “lost sheep” in the sense that they didn’t know God- they are Christians and love the Lord with all they’ve got left in them, but I see this passage as applicable in the sense that they are out of reach, they’ve been left in one of the rural most parts of Botswana..sheep, lost and in the realest way, hurt. So, we left the ninety nine. We went for the three. The three Booysie women out in Seronga. The three that got hit with three deaths over the past year and a half. The three that have devoted themselves to God and “reaching the unreached” through Delta Cross Ministry. We may not have evangelized to the village, we may not have “reached the unreached,” yet, I think we did. In a lot of ways, the Booysie ladies are unreached. And in many, unexplainable ways, we reached them.
And while we were acting out God’s kindness in leaving the ninety nine, that does not mean that the ninety nine were left lacking. The ninety nine have been and will be kept safe. Look at the way the four other teams on our squad lived out shepherding the ninety nine! Salvation and zeal and healing!! There’s no lacking there. How incredible is our God?! Taking care of sheep near and far, so limitless.
The mission was fulfilled, though it may not have been what I expected. But. Life, most especially life with God, is almost never anything close to my expectations. How beautiful. How fun! Exhilarating, honestly.
I hope this blesses you and encourages you. You may not be living a life of surface level glory in the sense that you’re out “on the mission field,” yet you are still an active and powerful participant in the overwhelmingly large characters of the Lord just waiting to be fulfilled. He is gentle, yet manages to fan flames of passion and purpose in even the most lost and weak. He is generous, yet just. He is forgiving, yet He has to hate sin if His love for us is true (and His love for us is nothing but true). There’s so much to the meanings of all that I’m attempting to word, but it’s simple. God needs us all. He needs us to be picking up our shields of faith (Ephesians 6:15) and living in the freedom and unstoppable power that Christians carry. Be kind to your neighbors, look the wall flowers in the back of class in the eye and redeem value in them, create peace in your homes and work environments, stay creatively inspired and alive in your love for others, enhance your skills and passions in order to give God insane amounts of glory, act like eternity is as real as it is!! All so doable! I pray a simple kind of prayer over whoever’s eyes are reading these words right now: God, show them the opportunity and value of the lives they’re living, refresh them, may they see both the beauty and the brokenness of their corner of the world, and may they rise and live lives worthy of You!!!
I’ll include some words that came to me on our little kitchen floor while worshiping because I find them applicable to my entire experience in Botswana:
“I see the dove
It’s coming with fresh life
I see the dove
Means we’re out of the flood
I see the dove
God, I see the dove”
(based off of Genesis 6:6-14)
*If you’re confused or are wanting more context for this post, look at Botswana Part 2!
