I am really excited to introduce you all to another friend of mine! A single conversation with her has turned my understanding of what it really means to have faith upside-down. I hope that it will have a similar effect on you!
Three days before our teams were due to leave the Philippines, I had the privilege of having a one-on-one conversation with one of the youth. She was just hanging around the church for the afternoon (which happens to be right next door to the place all of us Racers stayed for the month).
We walked into the church and sat on the small stage, strategically in front of a fan. We faced each other, sitting cross-legged, and I listened as this beautiful nineteen-year old began to pour out her story to me.
I am honored that this young woman felt safe enough to vulnerably place her story in my hands. I want to respect her trust, and therefore I will not share all of the specifics of her story. However, her story is powerful; it deeply impacted me. I want to highlight a few parts of it that I believe will stun and challenge you as much as it did me.
This young woman has persevered through a lot of unfair circumstances, through disappointment, and when all hope seemed to be lost. She is strong. She is mature. And she has a faith that has greatly inspired my own. I had to concentrate hard while she was speaking so that my jaw did not drop to the ground. My sister in Christ has clung to dreams against all odds. Faith in Jesus Christ is the element that has emboldened her to stare undeniable circumstances in the face, and believe for the impossible. This is the kind of faith I have been striving for since coming on the World Race. In this nineteen-year old young lady who I came to minister to, I now have an example to follow.
This young woman has had a dream to attend college for many years. She would be the first in her family of ten (two parents and eight children) to achieve such an accomplishment. In her third year of high school, she was ranked second in her class, and she was very eager to be the Salutatorian of her class and maintain good grades upon graduation.
Unfortunately, life dealt her a burden that began to diminish the likelihood of a future including a college graduation. My friend found herself caring for her nieces, shouldering the responsibilities of a mother, while completing her senior year. There was nobody else to care for them. Needless to say, waking up at 4:00 a.m. to care for three little ones while also trying to balance school took its toll. Her grades slipped. Her dreams began to look less possible.
Adding to her misfortune, her older sister who had promised to put her through college financially, made a poor decision in her deviance from following Jesus (two of her sisters had been following Jesus, but ended up backsliding, leaving my friend as the only Christian in her family). This decision rendered it impossible for her to supply any funds for college.
Tears began to blur my vision as I watched this incredible young woman fight back her own tears. I could not even imagine how she must have felt. I had always known I would be able to go to college somehow. That was one of the many “givens” I had grown up with as a middle-class, white American.
Her parents would not be any help in this domain, for her father squandered the little money he made to feed an addiction. During this time, she was also forbidden from attending church, for her family disapproved of her split from the Catholic church.
It seemed that my friend was all alone.
However, through the generosity of the Pastor of Moriah Baptist Bible Church, and many prayers, my friend was able to attend her first semester of college. She saw the Lord’s faithfulness and provision for her.
When enrollment came around for the next semester, it was a different story. My friend had absolutely no funds to pay for the semester. She woke up on the morning of the last day of enrollment, praying for the thousandth time for the Lord to provide the funds.
She made up her mind that morning that she was going to show up at the college. She was going to have faith that the Lord would provide.
“With God, time does not matter. He can still provide at the last minute,” she said wisely.
As she waited in town to be picked up, she received a text from a friend asking how she was doing. She explained that she was on her way to college, that she had no money for the last day of enrollment, but she was trusting the Lord to provide.
And provide He did. Her friend lent her all of the tuition money she needed in order to complete her second semester of college. What an incredible God we serve!
I cannot even begin to tell you how much this story alone has challenged me in my faith. How often do I halfheartedly attempt to trust God, succumbing to doubt the second He doesn’t show up? Far too often, I am sad to admit.
I love this story for two reasons. First of all, I think it is a powerful example of the definition of faith: hoping for what we cannot see. The kind of faith I often subscribe to has at least some element of physical evidence that guarantees its likelihood. But that’s not the faith Jesus calls us to.
The other reason I love my friend’s story is that this kind of faith was not exhibited by some wise, 60 year old woman; the faith in this story came from a nineteen year old girl living in the Philippines.
By sharing her story with me, I am discovering a greater courage within myself to persevere in faith, especially when circumstances testify that I am ridiculous to do so. We serve the God of the impossible, and I am ready to start believing that.
This past month was absolutely incredible. We got to run two VBS’s, while training the youth of Moriah Baptist Bible Church on how to run one so that they can continue once we leave. They almost completely ran the second one on their own! Four kids accepted Jesus and got baptized while we were there! I built relationships with the youth and got to invest in them. I befriended some local children who continued to bless me until the moment I left with little gifts of flowers, candies, and notes. A piece of my heart will surely remain in the Philippines with these people I have grown to love deeply.
