Please meet my very precious friend Lydia. God used her powerfully in
my life to teach me about faith. This month in Kenya God increased my faith and
trust in Him and he used Lydia
repeatedly to teach me this lesson. With her permission I have asked to share
her story and our friendship with you.
Lydia
is 26 years old. She has lived a very hard life. When she was a young girl, her
father led her to the Lord. He was a pastor. But she turned her back on him
after her father died. Her mother remarried and twice her step Father tried to
rape her when she was a young teenager. The second time he chased her around
the room with a knife, telling her he would kill her if she didn’t let him on
her. She said, “Then kill me it would be better for me than if you slept with
both me and my mother.” After a few hours of fighting with him, she cried out
to God, “Help me!” And just when he was about to succeed in raping her, someone
knocked at the door, and persisted in knocking until her step father answered.
When he opened the door, she ran naked out of the house. A woman saw her and
gave her, her coat to cover herself, and Lydia ran. She decided to sleep in
the fields that night instead of return to her home. She was alone and crying
out to God, when a cheetah found her. She thought, O Lord, I am going to die. This cheetah is going to eat me, but if you
love me, close this cheetah’s mouth so that he does not attack me. And the
cheetah left her.
After that night Lydia went to live with her
grandmother. She went to school as long as possible but her family could not
afford for her to go. Three times she tried to sneak into the school and on the
third time she was caned so bad, that she ran away, bloody and in incredible
pain, determined never to go back.
Lord, and he has been providing for her ever since. She told God that she
wanted to live with her mother again, and go to school, but that if she went
back then God would have to remove her step father from her house. God did this
and she moved back in with her mother. Ever since this time God has provided
for her life in crazy miraculous ways.
One things she said to me that I will never forget:
“Sometimes I do not
have the money to take lunch, and so I do not take lunch. But when God does not
provide the food, I sit at the table and I thank God for the food he did not
bring. I say, ‘God, thank you for the food you did not provide today. I know that
you know what I need and I did not need food today. Thank you that I have not
hungered. Thank you that you will provide food when I need food.’ And you know
one time God did not bring the food for two weeks, but I was never hungry. Then
one day God brought the food, and I became hungry and I ate it. So you see
Kristen, if you trust God, he will bring you everything you need. You do not
need to worry. Just trust him with all your life.”
God, I pray for a
faith like Lydia’s to know that you will provide for me, each and every day.
Increase my faith and help thou O Lord, my unbelief. Amen.
