As I reflect over the past year I think back on stories I’ve encountered, stories that consist of the last 323 days. I have dozens. I’ve talked with people in prison, the red light district, and in the slums around the world. We have asked them their story. They shared. I saw hurt and how evil has played a role in so many individuals lives. I’ve seen the scars of an 8 year old made by her grandmother. I’ve loved on kids in Africa where a third of them are orphans because of the AIDS rate. I’ve talked and chose to love a man who promotes human trafficking and prostitution in the streets of Bangkok. I’ve prayed with a woman in prison who sold marajuana in Nicaragua so that she would be able to provide her kids a bite to eat. I’ve made relationships with Haitians who have participated in voodoo witchcraft who are simply seeking to be healed. I’ve witnessed starving people in Haiti who simply eat a mango that fell from the tree to be their food for the week.
I have seen brokenness, but even more than evil in this world I have seen hope and experienced a God who more than conquers. I’ve seen redemption, healing, and strength. The abused eight year old girl, God has protected and stretched out His hand to her. He has exposed what true love is to her grandmother to love instead of hate because she simply didn’t know true love. She is no longer abused, but loved. As I discipled a girl in Africa we wrote down lies she had believed about herself. Paulette found freedom from her parents dying of AIDS and thinking they left her all alone in this world. She saw that our heavenly Papa never left her and was there in the midst of it all. As we went to share hope in the red light district and ‘bring light’ I found that it was already there as I met a Thai Christian working at a bar in the midst of so much darkness and a country where only 1% believe in Jesus. Hope was already present and we get to simply walk along side of God where He already shines in one of the darkest places I’ve encountered. As for the woman who was in prison, she discovered that this is simply a time God wants to be with her since He’s a jealous God. He is the ultimate judge one day and His grace covers all depths of our past through the depths of this love for us. I’ve seen healing and physical change as we prayed for a Haitian woman practicing voodoo for all darkness to leave and God’s truth to overcome her. All of these stories have a plot twist of brokenness that lead to redemption.
Day 324 will be my first day in America. I’ve been in awe of who God is. As I leave there is so much more than these 323 days worth of stories of His faithfulness. I won’t be in 11 different countries, but I’ll be precisely where He wants me for the next two years, America. I won’t be on an 11 month mission trip, but I will never stop living missionally. As I reflect on these stories I will forever be in awe, but I won’t dwell. God never wants us to rely on a miracle already formed because if we do we miss the miracle that is in progress. “Remember the ways He made, but forget the way He made it because He won’t do it the same every time. Forget not His faithfulness, but the form in which He came in” (Steven Furtick, Elevation Church).
The Israelites fled as they were bonded in captivity as slaves from the Egyptians. As they were running there was a barrier: The Red Sea. God told Moses to stretch out his hand and the water was parted and Israelites were saved. As God called the Israelites into wilderness some time later, they had a barrier. There was no water.
As Moses comes to God, God blesses them in the wilderness with water. Water used to be a barrier of the past and God gives it to the Israelites now as a blessing.
Before coming onto the World Race I was entangled with fear about traveling due to anxiousness I experienced with ISIS as I studied abroad in Spain. Every time I heard about another shooting close by me it became worse. God told me to go on this 323 day journey and to live a life of trust instead of fear. My fear was my barrier, but every story I hear and person I meet along the way is the biggest blessing I’ve ever experienced. The biggest blessing of all isn’t a gift, but the opportunity for God to use me to show His blessing to others.
Papa, you transformed my barrier into one of the biggest blessings of my life. I know you aren’t done so I cannot wait how you transform my next barrier into a blessing after day 323. I’m ready for you.
‘I give it all to you God trusting that you make something beautiful out of me.’
