It’s been two months
now, and I am amazed at the work that God is doing. What did I expect though? I
mean I left everything back in America and I’ve been relying on Him for
literally everything…why would He not do amazing things when I’m out of His
way? Anyway, one specific area that has blown me away is how God is moving in
the children I’ve come in contact with.
I’ll start with Bronte
and Kea Kea. These lovely ladies were in my cabin at El Rancho in New Zealand.
They had hearts of gold, and it was evident to everyone around them. Bronte had
asked Jesus into her heart previously to camp. I got to watch Kea Kea absorb
all that God wanted to tell her, and by the night we shared the gospel with the
girls, she asked Christ into her heart (truly beautiful to watch). My
co-leaders, Katja and Laura, had instilled into them that they could pray for anything at anytime. And boy did those girls eat that bit of knowledge up! We
were standing in line to go into the cafeteria when Kea Kea and Bronte saw
Michelle Euperio (my fellow world racer) limping across the room, due to her
injured knee. They looked up at me and Laura and excitedly asked, “can we go
pray for her?!?!?” I’ll let the picture finish this part of the story…
Dawson. I met Dawson
while in the Level 1 class at Woolaning. I had helped him with reading and was
excited when he humored me by giving me a high-five. We later found out that we
would become temporary house parents of Tower House for the rest of our stay at
Woolaning. Guess who was in that house? Mr. Dawson. It is customary at
Woolaning to go to the local swimming holes every week for the kids. This
particular day, Leyna, Noe, David and I were so lucky to tag along with our
Tower boys to Florence Falls (um, by the way, their swimming holes are amazing
and put to shame any and all swimming hole I’ve ever been to). I was sitting in
the water with Dawson while we were watching all the other boys jump off of the
rocks next to the waterfalls. Dawson told me that his sister was baptized in
something like Florence falls. I asked him if he had ever been baptized, and he
responded, “no.” I asked if he wanted to be baptized right then and there. Here’s Mr. Dawson…
blog…I’m sure I’ll have plenty more child stories) I want to tell you about my
buddy, Jackson. Sometimes we called him Michael Jackson. He was also in Tower
House so he was sorta obligated to hang out with us, haha. Anyway, he had a
super tender heart and he loved to laugh! One night we were playing uno (they
pronounce it you-no). After we played uno and had ice cream, we were out side
getting ready to hit the hay. The older boys were playing music, so we were
trying to get the younger boys to start a dance party. God seemed to have
bigger plans…Jackson started quoting scripture. Something about the Lord coming
back, a trumpet sounding, and that we are to live together. I stood there
shouting, “Amen!”, “Preach, Preacher!” and this kid continued to preach! I said
something along the lines that fellow believers and lovers of the Lord are
brothers and sisters in Christ. He said, “Yeah, we say baba.” So meet my baba,
Jackson…
