This month in Malaysia the men and women of A-squad have been separated into a male team for “Man-istry” and five female teams for “Fem-inistry”.
I have once again joined the ranks of an all girls team, Team Valor.
We are working with the Kumar family at KJ Generation in Kuala Lipis, Malaysia as English teachers. The Kumar family is in a season of transition as they are restructuring and moving their English centers at both of their locations.
The first day of ministry found us boxing up the English center and marveling at the beautiful murals previous teams had painted on the walls. Each classroom was adorned with breathtaking scenes from some of our favorite Bible verses. We went around taking pictures to commit these images to our memory.
Never had I seen a place that so literally radiated Christ’s love from everywhere, including the walls.
On our second day as we were preparing to move the boxes to the new location we received a call; the murals had to be painted over. The walls could not remain as they were: we had to paint over them.
We were devastated; it felt as though we were desecrating this space.
We were taking walls that radiating Christ’s love for this community and turning them blank, bare, white.
Turning them into nothing.
One stroke at a time our hope that the owner would change his mind diminished as each wall turned white. Finally there was one wall left.
I had saved my favorite mural for last. This wasn’t just a beautiful wall, this painting was a masterpiece. It spoke to my very soul. It resonated deep within me.
Above the mural were the words “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose.” The artist captured Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 so beautifully in a gentle winter snowfall amongst a forest of evergreens.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Before I painted over the mural I inscribed the word Love in the middle of the snowflakes and as I painted Love continued to stand out even though it was white just like the rest of the wall.
While I painted I asked The Lord to speak to me, to explain why we had to paint over such beautiful images of His glory. He explained that he is re-making me just as he is physically transforming the center before my eyes.
I was beautiful but now He is making me pure and clean so that the only thing which radiates from me is His Love. God reminded me that he is “transforming [me] into [Christ’s] image from one degree of glory to another.” – 1 Corinthians 3:18
Where I used to value outside beauty being seen and appreciated God is transforming me to be as pure and clean as the wall I just painted. He is working inside me so others won’t be drawn to me because of my outward appearance but because of God’s Love which radiates from my core.
During the struggles and the challenges on this journey of life He is transforming me into greater degrees of His glory.
He is transforming me
into the image of Christ.
