I had one of those mountain top moments yesterday. Yes, one of those big, breakthrough moments. But first let me give you the background:
I have been working with Timion: An amazing group of therapists and constructors- true Jesus lovers. They go out into the community and visit a hundred or so children with cerebral palsy, developing new equipment to help them with their day-to-day life and to help them with any physical needs. Not to mention, they pour so much love onto these kids. It’s absolutely incredible. But although I loved what this ministry stood for, it was hard for me at first. The reality was, we only had 2 1/2 weeks of ministry in J-Bay. Kinda hard to really get connected when we’re about to leave. We were honestly quite exhausted from the first month, doing lots of construction work and then the second month hopping around from ministry to ministry. I was hoping for some sort of stability. My expectation was to be working with kids as we were told a few months prior. Oh how I was needing some kiddos! They fill me up. But then I arrived at Timion and discovered we were going to be doing construction work again at Timion. We were going to help finish a daycare center that they were building for 6 cerebral palsy kids. The work at the beginning was challenging.
I was left with two options at this point:
1. Complain and feel sorry for myself
2. Choose in and work my hardest because the lord placed me there for a reason
Once I made that decision to choose in, I discovered the Lord began to bless me, simply because I said yes to him. He gave me the opportunity for 2 days to go and work at a daycare with children, he gave me a chance to work in a highschool for 2 days and he blessed me with a precious community at Timion where we would worship and pray every morning and have great conversation as we worked. It turned out to be the best 2 1/2 weeks! And yesterday, it all came together.
We got up at 6:00 AM and drove an hour away to our daycare community. We had the sweetest talks with our host Hannah along the way. We then arrived at a finished house for the Lords children. The daycare we had been working on was done. Seeing where it was 2 weeks ago to where it is now, was amazing! It was a dream come true to this organization. After we decorated, the children arrived and it was precious seeing their sweet smiles. We worshipped together, (African style, I must add) as we celebrated! The mothers began to cry, praising the Lord for a safe place for their children to come and learn, feel loved and to simply just be kids. It was in this moment, as I sat with a beautiful 4 year old girl that she looked into my eyes for about 30 seconds, a wide smile on her face. I could see Jesus in this girl. It was like I was staring into the yes of an angel. I could feel the presence of the Lord around me as we worshipped. It was a priceless moment.
Many people can look at the outside and see the disability of these children and completely miss the heart inside of them. These children are SO loved by people that have the love of the Lord in their heart. I am feeling so blessed that I was able to see the fruit of this ministry and be apart of something so special. I couldn’t have finished off my ministry experience in J-Bay any better!
