This Saturday my team and the boys team got the opportunity to partner alongside the ministries Out of Darkness and Path2Hope to minister to a highly trafficked neighborhood near Gainesville. We threw a big block party with music, free food, crafts and games in hopes to bring light to a dark place and open the door for conversations. One little girl, we will call her Sarah for this post, and I automatically bonded. She’s a sweet, bold, and energetic fireball that was ready to throw herself into any game at any time. She was so smiley and would never pass up a chance to cling to you. Suddenly, her attitude shifted. Her eyes began to water as she whispered, “Mary… can we pray together?”.
Oof. What an honor to be trusted enough that she wanted to pray with me! What an honor to see how when she started to get sad, she wanted to pray! As we talked about who Jesus was, what she thought of him, how she prayed at home and what her life was like, I felt so honored to learn from her and her perspective and get to add my own. We are so quick to dismiss kids but sweet Sarah was really wise, I mean really wise. My heart broke as I listened to things she had heard, been told, and just picked up on. But through it all, she said when things happen she just prays. Wow. As the party started wrapping up we started to pray together. “Amen!”. Sarah looked up at me and her once lion painted face paint was completely smeared as her tears streamed down her face. She gripped me tighter than I think I’ve ever been held before and asked me never to leave. Safe to say my heart shattered in that moment.
It is such a privilege to get to be a tangible vessel to express the love of the Father to the people around us but moments like this make it so so hard.
“I wish I could stay here forever, but you know who is with you forever, Sarah?” I responded. “Who?” Sarah asked eagerly. “God never leaves you!” I continued on to say, “You know how much I love you, but God loves you so much more. God will never leave you your whole life!” “Never?” Sarah said with a whole lot of skepticism and hesitation. “Never! See how I’m holding you right now? God is always holding you! He is your safe place and he will always protect you. Remember how we just prayed?” Sarah lifted her head from my lap and looked at me and nodded. “You can always pray to God, he loves hearing from you! He’s the best friend ever!” We continued to talk about how God loves her so so much and how he has such great things in store for her. We talked about how God calls her worthy, beloved, beautiful, and very good. We prayed together one last time before she went home and I encouraged her that I would pray for her for the rest of my days, and I will. As she walked away, she turned back and said “I’ll keep talking to God! I can feel him hugging me!” Wow. The Lord is good even in hard things and he makes his love known to his Children. Sarah hit me hard. I had to trust that God can love and protect her so much better than I can. After all, who am I compared to Abba Father? The reality is, there is so many Sarah’s in the world. Whether they are 6 or 87 people are hurting and need reminders that the Lord is with them. We pass by Sarah’s in the grocery, restaurants, our workplace-everywhere. Yet, how often are we more consumed with our agenda than creating a space to allow the Sarah’s to be seen and heard if they want? The Great Commission doesn’t just apply to overseas missions; in fact, I would argue that it applies so much more to our everyday lives. As we go, throughout our normal days, we should be tangible expressions of the Gospel. I challenge all of us to seek out ways to do that this week!
Prayer requests:
Pray for the families that we got to minister to on Saturday! That the Gospel would infect that neighborhood, that Sex trafficking would not exist anymore (bold prayers people), and that people would know they are worth so much more than they are told.
Pray for Path2Hope and Out of Darkness! That they would be in tune with the Holy Spirit, and that they would continue to build meaningful relationships with families.
Pray for my squad! We head to Louisiana tomorrow to do hurricane distaste’s relief. Pray that we would be able to provide both spiritual and physical needs of the people there and for safe travels!
With Love,
Mary
