How do I begin to describe this month?
There were fires. There were battles. There was love. There was power. There was worship. There was revival. There were tears (of course).
This month we were working at an orphanage called El Shaddai, set atop one of the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life. God’s creativity and beauty are scribbled everywhere in that place. My heart beats loudly just thinking about it. It was a beautiful and hard month.
Three of my favorite stories from this month include an orphaned child, a widow, and a woman with a stroke.
I first met Sekele, a young boy at El Shaddai, while he was trying to sleep outside on a rock while the other kids were playing around him. My heart sank seeing him because I knew that he was an outsider among them. I sat down next to him and I simply asked, “do you want to sit in my lap?” and he looked up at me slowly with his big brown eyes and just nodded his head as he crawled over into my lap. And within a matter of seconds he was asleep.
Sekele and his brother Brian, who has cerebral palsy, were left unwanted by their parents, brought to El Shaddai in hopes of finding life and a home. Little did I know at the time Sekele hadn’t been responding to any physical touch before that moment that his little body was curled up in my lap. And can I just say that “little face” (what I called him) in the next two days began to open up with new life in him. He would see me coming through the gates and leap up with a big smile and run into my arms. My heart melted every time. That’s what love does. Now you would never know he was that sad little boy I found on the rock trying to sleep, lonely and sad. I love that little face.
The next story comes from one of the homestead visits (going out into the community to bring prayer and food) and the house we were visiting this woman had about 5 kids, the youngest HIV positive, her husband died in 2005, and she had no income. We got to talk to her for a while and I just could sense in my spirit that something was different about this woman, something beautiful. And so after we brought some encouragement from scripture and talked about what we could pray for her for, and then prayed for her, afterwards I felt the Spirit telling me to sit down next to her and hold her hands.
So I did.
I held her hands, looked her in the eyes and started to cry. She cried. I just told her, even though she couldn’t understand me, that she was beautiful and that it would all be okay. I can’t describe the moment. But God was all over it. That’s what love does. It just cries and let’s other cry with no shame
The third story is truly something magical.
It was during another homestead visit with a few other squadmates and Rachel, our contact, and I we met Angeline who is in her 30’s and had a stroke 2 months earlier. She had barely moved for 2 months, not using her right arm, or right leg at all. While we were walking over to where she lived, my squadmates and I felt it in our bones that something was going to happen, just not sure exactly what.
So when we arrived to her and her husband’s mud hut, she was sitting up as we walked in…looking solemn and limp. My heart immediately felt deeply for her. And the best I can describe what happened was that nothing and everything happened for 2 ½ hours.
We prayed, we sang, we cried out to Jesus, we laid hands, we prayed more, we sang more. It was like an ebb and flow. After a while of being there and nothing happening, but the Spirit being in that place, I felt the Spirit moving me to lie down on the bed next to her. So I did.
As soon as my head hit the blanket next to her face, this smile crept over her face…the first smile I saw. I cried. I kissed her face and her hands, just smiling back. Oddly, I didn’t feel bad for her, I wasn’t crying for pity. I was crying because it was one of THE most beautiful moments I have ever experienced in my life. I saw Christ in her. That’s what love does. Was she healed? No. But my squadmates and I believe she absolutely will be one day. Did the miraculous happen? According to some, no. But the beauty of that situation made me fall in love with Christ more.
This month was a whirlwind of emotions and great love stories. I fell in love with all the orphans of El Shaddai. I fell in love with what God is doing in that place. It’s something special.
His refining of my life is still evidently happening, and I’m thankful it’s not always easy. But that’s what love does.
Love has a face, many of them, and I saw them. And I am beyond grateful that God let me see each one.
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