Hey all,
During my journey of fundraising, I partnered with Keys for the Journey. I never shared about the key that I had prophesied over me, the word I received on my key was ‘Overcomer’. I didn’t understand it at first, but everyone around me said something along the lines of “that’s fitting”. Since getting here in South Africa, choosing to wear it, everyday. I felt the need to just ask God, “what do you want me to learn from ‘Overcomer’? Pretty neat that we are so intensely loved by our Creator who desires to have these conversations with us.
I made a list of all the things that I was overcoming or already overcame that would make Overcomer ‘fitting’, but I still didn’t feel as if it was from God rather from my own thoughts.
On Wednesday, my team and I were doing community outreach. Which is going door to door preaching the gospel. I felt eager on Wednesday to do this, but I wasn’t really sure why. Our morning we started at a house with four ladies. We did their dishes, finished their laundry, swept for them and then they taught us how to make a simple African dish. While I was trying to get my mind to be okay with my mouth to chew and swallow chicken feet, I was talking to God about why I was feeling so eager to spend time with these ladies. I felt that he was saying to wait. So thats what I did. I just waited, thanking these women for allowing us to come and serve them. We prayed with them and restored their hope. Planted seeds and healed the hurting.
After lunch with the team, peanut butter and jelly, we headed back out. I was just waiting, ready. I felt God had something for me to do, but couldn’t put my finger on it. We walked for like 35 minutes, passing SO many houses. I could tell that I was getting a little irritated and maybe took ‘door to door’ a little to literal. I asked our translator what the plan was and he also wasn’t too sure, mentioning all the houses we had just passed. But we kept walking! Looking down at my feet, I hear our translator finally say, “That’s our house.” When I looked up, I saw this beautiful girl. Probably my age and wearing pink. I felt it, I know. I was waiting for her.
She welcomed us into her yard with the biggest smile on her face, as if she was anticipating our arrival. She was. She knows the Lord, but quit seeking Him. She went through something really hard (she wasn’t comfortable sharing) that made her get caught up in lies. She had asked God for something. Something to know that He was still there, with her, because she used to feel Him often.
Everyone in my group was so willing to talk to her, sharing their stories, giving her scripture, laughing with her, loving her. But she wasn’t into it. She kept staring at me. She said “I want to hear from you. What’s on your heart?”.
So here I am, thinking about this sweet 22 year old girl who is struggling because she is hurting from something that she was not comfortable to talk about and just wanted to know if God was still with her. So, I opened my mouth. For the first time I understand what it means when people say ‘all you have to do is open your mouth and the Holy Spirit will speak through you’. I told her my story. For the first time, I shared my hurt and the most uncomfortable thing for me to talk about. My miscarriage. She wept. She said to me, “I knew I needed to hear something from you”. I overcame the uncomfortable, to speak to a woman struggling, hurting and unsure as to if God still loves her.
The team took over, and I just sat. Thanking God, because He showed me why I am an Overcomer. But He told me to give her my key. I started asking Him questions like can’t I keep my key and just tell her she’s an overcomer? Silence.
Standing up, I took my key off my neck, and sharing with her everything that God had just spoke to me about what this key meant to me and how I am an overcomer. I put it around her neck and said “God wants me to give this to you, because you are going to overcome this”. We hugged, and cried, and laughed.
I know that her story, is going to be a story of redemption. Her spirit was restored and she was full of joy and thankfulness. She prayed a big powerful prayer over our team, and over herself.
I am in South Africa, to be a messenger to my new sweet friend that she is so loved by the one who knows her best. And overcome sharing a part of my life that God is going to used in many women’s lives to make their stories a story of redemption as well.
Because They Haven’t Heard,
Calla Rae
