“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands.” Psalm 107:2-3
After 5 long flights from Cambodia, a short hiatus in LA (complete with a run to target), and an 8 hour bus ride, my team and I found ourselves in Medellin, Colombia. Little did we know the awesome month that laid ahead of us as we drug our tired, little bodies and too heavy packs into our new home for the next few weeks.
Our ministry for the month was an organization called Ciudad Refugio which translates into “City of Refuge.” This place is a drug restoration program/ church/ homeless shelter/ feeding program/ home to people from all over the world. It’s a pretty wonderful place, as we all soon discovered.
The four women on my team (Allie, Jordan, Bethany and I) along with one of our squad leaders (Ashley) got the privilege of getting to know and pouring into the lives of the women who are living there, going through the drug restoration program.
These three women in the program have quite the stories to tell. Stories of great heartache and pain, bad decisions and suffering, but ultimately, of pursuit and redemption by our Creator and loving Father.
They all had, at one point, found themselves living on the streets of Medellin, homeless and addicted to drugs, one as little as 2 months before we met her. One had been addicted to heroine. Another had found herself in broken relationship with her husband and two kids.
As we meet with them each day for a time of devotion and studying the Word, we got to hear their stories, share ours, hear about their struggles, weep with them, laugh with them, celebrate victories with them and mostly, sit in awe at the wonderful, all-powerful, love and pursuit of our good, good Father.
All 7 of us have life stories completely unique to us. All vastly different in our own ways, but they all share one common thing: redemption.
Our Father, our King, our Creator, the lover of our souls: pursued each of us, died for each of us, to redeem us back to himself.
He took each of our stories, the pain, the struggle, the mess of it all and redeemed it. Each time we took our lives into our own hands and made a royal mess of it, he redeemed it for his purposes.
Those times in our lives, are not times to be ashamed of or to hide away in dark places so no one hears about them. That’s what the enemy wants. That’s what he tries to make us believe.
On the contrary, those are the moments the Lord uses the most (if we allow him) to redeem us. And he invites us to share it with others and bring redemption to them.
That’s what these women did, that’s what I have been learning to do.
We handed our stories over him and allowed him to heal and to work through them; allowed him to shine his glory through the mess that we had made.
These women have a strength about them that I grew to admire so much over the short time we had with them. And this strength, it came straight from their weaknesses. It came straight from them learning and knowing deep in the depths of their souls that their Father loves them, that they can trust Him, that it’s only His strength that will get them through anything. It’s something I am only beginning to understand fully.
They don’t even know it, but they taught me so much about trust in the ways that they lived out their lives. As they were vulnerable with us in sharing their struggles, I saw them choose to trust. Many times we encouraged them saying: ‘He is good. He will bring you through this. Rely on Him.’ And every time they nodded their heads and choose to trust; chose to believe that, yes, even though it still hurts sometimes, I can and will trust him with everything.
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God is good; He is so, so good. And my month in Colombia taught me about trusting in Him in deeper ways than ever before.
I will carry the stories of these women and their redemption with me as I carry my own story of redemption.
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
Shout it out, don’t keep silent.
There are people in your life to need to hear, who need to heal, who need to hand over their stories to be redeemed. Maybe they have even known the Lord for a long time, but still haven’t done it.
When we decided to speak out, to share about the redemption of the Lord in our lives, we bring unity, we swing the door wide open for community, for the type of community the Lord designed us for. For community that shuts out the enemy and expands the Kingdom of God.
If you’re one of the redeemed, start saying so!
If you don’t think often about the ways in which the Lord has redeemed you. Start thinking about it!
Ask the Lord to remind you, he will.
Psalm 143:5 says, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.”
He’s given you your story for a reason. Don’t hate it, don’t be afraid or ashamed of it. Use it for his glory. To spread his name. It might not be to every corner of the world, but spread it to every corner of your world. And if we all can commit to that, then every corner of the world will be reached.
