The other day at ministry, something happened that hurt my team and I’s heart.
Like I’ve said in past blogs, there are three little sisters that come to our ministry. They remind me so much of my sisters and I’s relationship, it makes me happy every time I see them! They didn’t show up for ministry for a while and so my team and I were concerned. The precious girls had lice, but that didn’t stop us from loving on them of course! The other day they walked in and we were so happy to see them but we quickly noticed they all had winter hats on that covered there entire heads. We all could tell what that meant. All three of them had to shave their heads to rid themselves of the lice they had been battling for months.
The youngest one, Samantha, was playing on the trampoline that sits in the corner of the small building that we meet in. She was playing with a bunch of other kids that come to ministry. I don’t know why I looked over at the trampoline when I did but I know that what happened next tore my heart in two.
I looked over and Samantha and all the kids are running around the trampoline like normal until one of the kids tore off Samantha’s hat. The entire group of kids started laughing at her while Samantha fell to the ground terrified, pulling her hat over her entire face. Her oldest sister, Ester, heard her cry and then ran to grab her precious little sister from the trampoline. All three sisters left and hid in a little dark room towards the back of our building. I walked in there and saw their little wet eyes staring at me. I broke down. My heart could feel the pain in those little girls hearts. My team and I proceeded to sit there and cry with them while telling them how absolutely stunning they truly were.
This moment brings me back to times with my sisters. Nothing this brutal ever happened to us but if anyone ever hurt one of my little sisters I would do anything to protect them. There’s something so special about a sister. They understand in a way no one else ever will on earth and it’s so special.
The Lord also spoke to me in this moment. For my whole life I’ve had self confidence issues. I would try to hide it a lot back home but I’m truly starting to find my identity here and learning not to keep things like that in, but to bring it to the Lord. The Lord has really shown me my true beauty here and I pray every night that he will continue to remind me of that beauty, and he does. When their tear filled eyes looked up at me and I started sobbing, The Lord said, “See now how my heart hurts when you call yourself not beautiful or worthy?” It hit me like a ton of bricks, but I finally understood.
I learned something very important. I learned that this world can be cruel sometimes, but that God is good through it. You can find Jesus in every person you meet. No matter who it is, what they do, deep down there is good. The issue is that with our human nature, we tend to turn our backs on people that have hurt us or hurt someone else. We don’t try and find the good in people, but we find the sin. Something I heard once was that “The devil knows our name but calls us by our sin, while God knows our sin but calls us by our name.” This is so powerful and as christians we should try to find the good in everyone. I was very upset at the kids that hurt Samantha; I wanted to yell at them and I wanted to give them a piece of my mind but the Lord stopped me and reminded me of this truth.
Although this hurt our hearts, God has showed me a new lesson. I’m so grateful for the things the Lord teaches me everyday. God is truly so good ALL the time.
