Sometimes you are sitting in a moment, and the Lord just starts tugging at your heart. You feel a little more love or a little more broken for whatever situation you are in. You have a desire to do something in that moment to make a difference.
And then there are other moments….
The moments where the Lord just takes your heart and totally breaks it in half and you’re sitting there unable to hold back tears because, well, your heart is in half.
I had one of those moments today.
We went to a new ministry this morning. It was called Grace Children’s Club. This organization is a reform center. It serves mainly two purposes. One is an alternative to jail for young children who have committed a crime. The other is to take in children who have been abused and often raped.
Although there are two different type of people there, they are all broken. Broken children who need healing and restoration and need to be loved and told that they do in fact have a future.
So, we spent a couple hours with these lovely boys and girls. We told testimonies, shared a bible story, answered their questions, heard a couple of their testimonies, and then just played with them.
My favorite part (and also the hardest part) was when the kids got the opportunity to ask us anything they wanted to. Some of the kids were really intrigued by the bible story we had shared and wanted to know more details about it. Others just wanted to know more about us….where we lived….where we attended church here in Africa..etc.
And then there was a serious of questions that absolutely broke my heart.
“How do you really turn your life around? How do you completely change?”
“What should I do if I really want to get an education but don’t have any money?”
“What do I do if I want to go to school but I live without a home so I can’t go?”
“What if my parents won’t let me go to school because they think I should stay and work?”
“Is it okay to steal if I am stealing money to use so that I can go to school?”
These are kids who, yes, many of them have committed crimes. BUT, they are desperate for something more. They WANT more for their lives, but they don’t have the resources to get it. They have fallen into crime out of desperation because they don’t know anything else and don’t have anything else. Mind you, we are talking 8 year olds to 18 year olds.
And then the final blow to my heart came after one of the boys shared their testimony. Our pastor Blessing’s told us that one of the men we knew at church, Grant, (who we thought was 18 but found out later is 29 and married with 2 kids, whoops) was one of the kids who came out of this reform center. He used to be a notorious criminal, but eventually got committed to the reform center, found Christ, and completely changed his life around. We’ve know this man for 3 months and would have never guessed his past.
As I looked around at these kids, imagining what kind of lives they could lead, the Lord spoke over them saying, “These are the Lost ones.”
At first I was like oh yeah, they are the forgotten ones that no one sees or thinks about or cares about.
And the Lord said, No, no. They are the LOST ones. They are the one out of the 100 sheep that got lost, but the shepherd chased after them, and then rejoiced when they decided to come back to the flock.
These children are the ones the Lord speaks of in Matthew 18. Because they went astray, whether of their own doing or something that someone did to them. But they have been rescued. And I am rejoicing over them. I am rejoicing that they have come back to the father.
Probably the biggest things I have taken away from Africa is that they need our help. You are probably thinking “well duh, could of told you that without living in Africa for 3 months.”
But I don’t mean help as in sending more missionaries. Or sending over more people to start more organizations. Because that is what I figured people needed.
I realized how many pastors are already sharing the gospel here. I’ve realized how many people and organizations are doing so much to help. And not people from America or other countries, but locals. Local people who are trying to do really big things to impact people’s life both physically and spiritually.
And if we got behind those people, and those organizations, if we supported them financially so they could do more of what they are already doing, it would change Malawi, and it would change Africa.
So, , I just wanted to remind you all of the opportunity to bless my host family. We are still collecting funds for him, and I would love if you could donate anything at all. You can find more information about him on my last blog (A man of Hebrews 11 Faith) and you can donate here at this link (http://give.adventures.org/campaign.asp?campaignid=1084).
Thank you all for your support, prayers, and giving! Please be praying that our entire squad would finish out this last week in Africa well and for safe travels to the Philippines.
