Heading out to ministry at 7:00 pm after already feeling tired was not something I wanted to do.
Our team planned to leave for Children’s Garden street ministry, the same place I met Grace last week, around 4:00 pm but rain pushed it back until 7:00 pm.
When the time to leave rolled around I wanted to stay back but Shannon encouraged me to go telling me, “you need to go, what if you heal someone tonight!”
I decided to go and with joy be “all in”.
Walking in joy, our team decided to dance in the Jeepney on the ride to ministry and then sing karaoke in a booth at the mall.
Side note: the Filipino people love karaoke and do it EVERYWHERE, LOUDLY
By the time we arrived at the ministry site I was feeling excited and hoped I would run into Grace again.
Within minutes I bumped into Grace who had brought her baby Noah Gabriel along so I could meet him.
We sat down on the curve and I asked her how her week was. She told me that her and Sherman (her babies dad) had gotten back together and he was trying to quit sniffing Rugby glue. While Rugby is a drug used to get high, it is also used to prevent hunger pains.
She was still struggling being a prostitute and because of it had been unable to attend the bible study that day.
I’m not usually the kind of person to pull out my bible and start reading to people but I felt God nudging me to read her a story out of it.
I asked her what her favorite verse was and she quickly told me John 3:16. I read this to her and then continued to read her stories that God was putting on my heart.
I finally came to the Prodigal Son story and read her the entire thing. Once I finished she looked up at me and said, “I am the prodigal daughter!”
She then explained that she had been praying about whether she wanted to go home and leave her “profession behind” but didn’t know what God wanted her to do.
It had been heavy on my heart since the first time meeting her that she needed to go home, to leave the streets and the brothel behind and reunite with her parents after 10 years.
God opened up the door for me to tell her this and after finishing the story she exclaimed, “You are my sign from God that I need to go home! I’m going to try and save enough money to get home, they would be so happy to see me and know that I am still alive.”
Leaving that night, I was talking to our ministry contact Sharon who told me that Grace had been excited all week about me coming back and wanted me to meet baby Noah. I got chills as I thought how easy it would have been to sit this one out. Just showing up meant the world to Grace, a girl who so rarely has people who show up for her.
While I may not have physically healed someone that night, just showing up for Grace and encouraging her may end up changing the course of her life forever.
I pray that throughout these next 10 months and then onward into the rest of my life I CHOOSE to simply show up with love and leave the rest for God to fill in.
Grace, Noah Gabriel and Sherman
P.S. We are leaving Tuesday for a CLOSED country and will unfortunately be unable to blog or be in communication with home for the month. Please don’t post anything about our next country on my blog to protect our contacts there. I will update everyone once I leave the country–Enjoy fall in the states and I will see you in November!
Side note:
Jess and I ate Balut, a Filipino delicacy but also known as one of the grossest foods in the world. Here are some pictures, our facial expressions tell it all…
A Balut egg..
