This blog I would like to dedicate to Matt, Marilyn and Faith Wright. Your support helped me reach March 15, 2019 and has made a difference in the hands of God.
We went to a village today! This entire month we have been going to churches to preach, and teaching at the local pastoral college. It has been a month full of studying God’s word and preparing to present a lesson in front of pastors or preach to the church. I have really enjoyed researching deep within the bible and being one with the Holy Spirit for this mission. However, my heart is with those in need of the love that God gives. My heart feels so strongly for the hidden local places of the countries we go to and just interacting with their day to day lives. I love being able to speak into them what the Lord tells me. So of course, I was so very excited when we drove out of Lome, Togo a little over an hour away into a village nearby. The excitement was building up and I could not wait to see what it would look like.
We all got off the van and were asked to introduce ourselves. We were asked to split up into 3 different groups, one group would teach the pastors of the village, the second team would teach women’s ministry and the third group would be doing children’s ministry. I always choose children’s ministry. Not this day though. I could feel God asking me to stay in my chair. I immediately told Mady, ” I don’t know why I chose women’s ministry.” She looked at me and smiled. Mady is always good at discerning when God is asking us to do something and can pinpoint when we are being obedient to what he says. I waited to see what would happen.
I was then asked by my friend Hannah if I had something to share to the women about how God tells you who you are and how because of Jesus our sins have been forgiven. I said, “I have something written down.” I chuckled and reassured her, “I have something.” I wanted to laugh because I knew it was God asking me to speak to these women. He always does that. He asks us to say something to people when we don’t even want to. So, of course, I shared what I posted on my blog a couple of weeks ago about who God told me I am and how I have been made new.
All of the women, from the little girls to the eldest woman present nodded and “Amen!” everything that I was speaking. One woman in particular felt everything so very deeply. Her face spoke of the many stories that she has lived. Her bowed look showed how much shame she carried and how she has carried it all this time. God nailed our sins to the cross and we are free beings, and as such we shall live. We are only here on Earth for a second and Earth should not take the best parts of us no matter what life throws at us. This woman needed to hear this message even late in her life. It was such an honor to be able to say the words that the Holy Spirit fed me so that I could impact, even in the slightest of ways, her life.
So, I wasn’t able to do children’s ministry this day. However, the Lord still found a way to use me. He used me to bring light into the dark places of our minds. HE did this by reminding these women of what HE sees in us, not what the world tells them they are. It was such a sweet moment, I will never forget.
