Jesus said that those who are faithful with little will be put in charge of much.
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” -Matthew 25:21
For those of you who know me, or my story, you know that my greatest passion in life is to see orphans know the hope and love of Christ! I long to see them know who their God is and, more importantly, who their FATHER is. For an orphan heart, there is nothing quite like the embrace of Father’s love- and that is something my heart yearns to share with the children of this world!*
Coming into the The World Race, I imagined myself in each and every country working with orphans (remember that broken expectations thing I talked about in my last blog?). I vividly daydreamed of bundles of children running into my arms and holding them from sun up to sundown. My first ministry in my first country is not an orphanage and I have rarely been around any children under the age of 13 at all.
Then one night I was asked to hold a “Gratis Abrazos” sign (which means “Free Hugs”) and walk up and down the wild, nightlife filled pier of San Andrés. My duty was merely to hold the sign yelling out “Gratis Abrazos,” (not an easy phrase for my American accent) and to give hugs to anyone who accepted the invitation. I love hugs! I love them so much! So this should have been so easy for me right?…
WRONG.
As soon as I started walking, this fear of rejection came over me. What Colombian would want to hug the crazy American holding the free hugs sign yelling out in a bad Spanish accent?
The first person to give me a big hug and a smile was this little boy in the white polo…
He wasn’t the orphan I had been picturing, and was actually surrounded by what seemed to be a very loving family, but he was a child of God and he wanted to hug me. As soon as I hugged him the fear of looking foolish swiftly left and I embraced him as if I was sharing with him all the hope and love I have in Christ. I told him Jesus loved him (Jesus te amo- that’s an easy one), took a photo, and then with confidence in Christ, moved on to the next person.
That night God gave me one little boy. Although I hugged many people on the pier, he was one little child that impacted me. That night I prayed for more children to hug because I have so much more love to give.
Two days later we helped the church host “The Mega Party,” a party for the youth of the church and anyone else we could get to come. We hung balloons, painted faces, and just 30 minutes before the party went up and down the streets of San Andres looking for children to invite (only in San Andres would they invite kids right before the party started). We made several stops to random homes and places we saw children, but it was the first and last stop that made the most impact on me.
At our first stop we were surrounded by about a dozen children all excited about the invitation and said they would come. As I left that group of kids, I mumbled in my broken Spanish… “Abrazos Gratis?” and they all charged at me giving me the biggest hugs, smiles, and giggles I had ever seen. At the last stop we were again surrounded by a giant group of children all playing with each other. The party was about to start and for all we knew there were only a few scattered teens there. We left that neighborhood with more than a couple dozen children in tow on our way back to the church.
More than 50 kiddos showed up to our party where we were able to play games, paint faces, dance, feed them snacks, and tell them about a good, good Father who is not boring but so much fun (some of those kids even came back to church the next morning!!!)! Most importantly, I was able to give them all of the free hugs I had that night because I learned from that first little boy in the white polo that When Hugs are Free, the love of Christ is evident!
Jesus said that those who are faithful with little will be put in charge of much. Thursday He gave me one little boy to love, Saturday He gave me 50 little kiddos to love, and I can’t wait to see what He will trust me with in the next 11 months!
You are MAGNIFICENTLY loved,
Sara
*PLEASE read Spiritual Slavery to Sonship by Jack and Trisha Frost! It’s a good one!
