One of the coolest things that the Lord has taught me over the last 8 months is that the only place we have to go is to Him to be used in His Kingdom. His Kingdom is here. And His Kingdom is where you are too. All we have to do is make ourselves available and He will use us.
The Lord has opened my eyes and my heart to the physical, emotional, social, and mental needs around me. I often times find myself walking down the street noticing all the needs that need to be met. But I’ve learned that there is a difference between needs that I can meet, and needs that I can’t meet. Needs that I can’t meet require full reliance on the Lord to provide and make a way when there seems to be no way.
This has been a journey of the Lord opening my eyes and heart to notice the brokenness and the needs around me. Some needs are a lot heavier than others, some needs I have the abilities to meet, and some needs are far from my abilities to meet, and are needs that only the Lord can meet. When I come upon needs that I can’t physically meet on my own, I’ve learned how to meet those needs to the best of my ability. Prayer. Prayer is one of the most powerful things, and gives me an overwhelming peace when there seems to be none.
Our ministry in Ecuador takes in at risk gang children to keep them off the streets and provides a safe place for them to be. There are a lot of needs in these children, and a lot of needs at the facility. It has been so sweet to be able to see needs in the people around me, and be used by the Lord to meet those needs.
At the beginning of our time here, I was on the bus thinking about our ministry. Some days are slower than others, and I was praying that the Lord would provide things for us to do. And He gave me this vision of little children brushing their teeth, and He laid it on my heart. I shared it with my team and they were all on board.
We are very unaware of the situations these children face at home, but one thing that stood out to me was the personal hygiene that these children weren’t getting at home. So that’s what the Lord put on my heart- a personal hygiene program to start with these kids.
The Lord opened my eyes to the needs around me, I prayed, and He made it possible to meet the need. Our team raised some funds to buy toothbrushes, toothpaste, and will eventually buy some other personal hygiene items for the kids. All I said was “yes,” and He did the rest.
The Lord can take an idea so small, and turn it into something that can change children’s lives and impact their childhood and future.
When we open our hearts to the Lord, when we make ourselves available to Him, He will use us through our inadequacy and through our brokenness.
There are so many needs around us each day. So many needs that we have the ability to meet, and so many needs that we probably don’t have the ability to meet. What we don’t have the ability to do, God does. God has no disabilities, all we have to do is say yes to Him and He will provide and He will give us the ability to meet the needs that we can’t on our own. We just have to keep our hearts and eyes open to be used by Him.
There are needs everywhere around us. I want to encourage each person to seek a need today, and meet that need. That may look a lot different for each person, but the joy that the Lord gives us from meeting needs is one that is all the same.
