Marta… Beautiful smile… Beautiful giggle…. Beautiful soul…
A soul whom Jesus is chasing after.
Marta is a prostitute.
We met her yesterday in the streets of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) as my team was doing early morning prayer walk and distributing bananas and small notes of encouragments to the women in the street.
She right away wanted to spend more time with us. We set up an approximative time to meet her today in a coffee shop.
So there we are, my teammate Mhairi and I, waking up at 5:30 am with this hope of meeting Marta. Will she show up ?
It is so dark outside, physically and spiritually speaking.
We are standing on the sidewalk just like so many other women. It feels strange.
Mhairi and I are unsure of whether we should look for Marta or just wait in the coffee shop while praying that Marta will show up.
“Wait here patiently” is the direction I hear from the Lord when my flesh just really wants to pace around the sidewalks of the street to make sure we won’t miss Marta.
Alright. There we are enjoying a nice cup of ginger tea/café latte and some french toast while learning to be patient and wait on the Lord. I am a bit nervous. I have never done that before, I really don’t know what to expect and how it could turn out. But somehow I feel it is a very important encounter.
Tic tac. Tic tac.
I can’t help but go in front of the coffee shop to scan the sidewalks.
Tic tac. Tic tac.
I can’t help but send Mhairi to check out the sidewalks.
Tic tac…
There she is !!!
Beautiful like the sunrise.
Marta is 32 years old. She is the mum of a 15 year-old son and a 5 year-old daughter. She studied until high school and married while still being a teenager. She is now divorced with her ex-husband living in Las Vegas. She has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Her parents lives 400 km away.
Marta says she is happy and her beautiful smile and giggles could make you believe her.
But her eyes say otherwise.
Marta already met Jesus before.
He pursued her using an unknown man in the streets who came to her 3 different times just to tell her : “You are for Jesus”.
She first thought he was crazy and it was not for her, but the seed was sowed. Soon after, she was going to church, started believing in Jesus and even encountered the God that heals. She was very sick at that time.
Yet struggles and opposition soon arose from her husband and family.
Marta knows Jesus. She sometimes prays. She recognizes life with Jesus is better.
But there she is in the streets because she is jobless.
My heart breaks for Marta.
How much more God’s heart must break for Marta.
He longs after His precious daughter. He longs to meet her at the well. He wants to refresh and renew her. He wants to quench her thirst with living water. He wants to restore what is broken. He wants to provide for her. He has a beautiful love story in store for her. My team and I were not the first to tell Marta about Jesus and I pray that there will be more people to tell her about the beautiful love story she could have with Him.
Just like the Lord pursued me, He is pursuing Marta and He is pursuing every one of these women out there in the streets.
We are meeting Marta again tomorrow morning for breakfast and until Sunday we are going out in the streets to reach out to these precious women. Language barriers are huge here, so my team and I are trying to minister to them in creative ways. God’s put on our heart to encourage them and show them how beautiful, valuable and worthy they are through written notes and little handmade roses and other little gifts.
I am so thankful that the Lord uses us as vessels to reach out to these women.
I am excited for Marta and Jesus’ love story to unfold.
But I am eager for many more love stories to develop.
Would you pray for us as we are ministering to Marta and God’s beautiful daughters ?
Prostitution is rampant in Ethiopia and it doesn’t help that it is considered legal.
I know that in that short time that we have ahead my team and I can’t do much more for those girls, but my prayer is that for the time that we will be here, God uses us powerfully to bring them light, joy, love and remind them of their worth and beauty.
With love.
