The music was turned up with children and teenagers dancing alongside us during our bittersweet last night at New Hope Jeremiah Project. The kids we had spent every afternoon with had turned up to spend a few more hours with us and say goodbye.
Unfamiliar faces lined the street as they had stepped out of their front doors to see what all the noise was that the Americans were making. Adults, teenagers, and small children who had seen us here and there in their neighborhood throughout the month came closer. As I was dancing with the girls I had come to love over the last three weeks, my teammate Ryan, had drifted over to the outskirts of the gathering to those unfamiliar faces. He quickly realized that some of these people had been drinking and were intoxicated. But that didn’t stop him from engaging them in conversation.
One of the people he spoke with was a woman who Ma hold told us about during our time at New Hope Jeremiah Project. A wife and mother of two, Veronica had lost her third child last year, she had been drinking to numb her pain. She had seen us all month from across the street and wondered if we would pray for her, but she was afraid to ask us to come because, in her words, she “didn’t have it all together”. In speaking with Veronica, Ryan felt led to ask her if we could come into her home and pray for her. She agreed.
Still hanging out, taking pictures, and being silly with the kids, I had no idea what Ryan had been doing for the last hour. But when he came back over and asked our team about prayer for Veronica, I wanted to join.
Several of us walked with Ryan across the street, not exactly sure what we were walking into. I quickly felt the depth of this woman’s pain. She shared very openly about her struggles in her marriage, with the loss of her baby, her drug-addicted sister, and the lack of work for her husband and her. She asked us to pray, by name, for her family members and for her home to be blessed. In Afrikaans, she explained to Ma that she loves God but doesn’t think He can accept her the way she is right now. We were able to speak in love to her that God doesn’t expect us to get “it all together” before we come to Him. None of us is perfect; therefore we cannot be good enough for God. Through Christ, His death and resurrection, we have access to God just the way we are.
Tears were flowing from her eyes. We gathered together in a circle and prayed for this beautiful, hurting woman. We prayed for her husband, her sister, her children, and her parents. We prayed for peace, restoration, healing, freedom from addiction, and blessing over Veronica and her family.
After the prayer, Veronica told Ryan that she wanted to give him something that will remind him (and us) to pray for her and her family. She gave him a Bible with her family members’ names written inside it. She asked him to carry it with him and for our team to remember her in prayer.
Veronica left an imprint on my heart. Her tenderness and honesty about her pain was so real. She is seeking God and desires His love and goodness in her life. God loves her and is drawing her to Himself. I have confidence that God has begun a good work in her and will carry out to completion (Philippians 1:6).
