“Restoration. This year is about restoration. Stacie The Lord wants to restore you. He wants to give you your heart back.”
These are the words my alumni Squad Leader prophesied over me at launch way back in January. It feels like a thousand years ago, in a land a million miles away.
But they came flooding back to me and instantly brought sweet tears to my eyes as I danced and sang this Sunday in an African church praising The Lord.
Like many people, I have dreamed of and prayed for being here for so long. From the moment our plane landed my pulse has been quickened. I thought I would just explode into a million shards of joy filled pieces when our van pulled in at Destiny School and dozens of sweet smiling faces greeted us.
I love all the small, dirty hands grabbing mine…all the laughing children hugging and pulling and hanging on me. I love that no matter where I go I am greeted by smiling faces and groups of curious, chattering children.
And Sunday, as our contact for the month, Pastor Kebbie, introduced us to his congregation, I was overwhelmed by this love God has for me. Strangers in the congregation were raising their hands to serve us.
Someone offered to buy our laundry soap. Then a group of teenage girls volunteered to wash our laundry. WHAT? It didn’t stop there…within a few minutes someone had volunteered to buy and cook us breakfast every morning, and then to walk with us to ministry each day to translate.
As I sat and watched all these hands go up I realized something: they’re doing this because they love God, but most importantly because God loves me.
He loves me so much and he is using the hospitality of strangers and the smiles of children to restore me to the Stacie I was created to be all along.
Saturday, our team was evangelizing in a nearby town. The first person I met when I turned on to the street was five year old Mark. Mark has a pure, sweet smile that could melt even the hardest of hearts. As we walked in and out of many houses sharing the gospel and encouraging our brothers and sisters in The Lord, Mark was always there circling in the street on his bicycle.
I saw him waiting close by just as we were about to pray for someone so I motioned for him to join our circle where we were praying. Holding my hand, leaving his bicycle by the road, Mark closed his eyes and stood in God’s presence as we called out to our Lord for the man we had just met.
And then I knew…
Stacie, Mark is a child of God too. He deserves to hear the gospel as much as the adults in these homes you’re going to. Ask him.
“Mark has anyone ever told you about Jesus?”
He shakes his head no.
“That’s okay come sit with me and I’m going to tell you the greatest story of all time.”
(The conversation was much longer than what follows. This is the abridged version)
Totally led by the Holy Spirit I told Mark how God created the sun and the trees and he even created him and me. That God created Adam and Eve, the very first humans…which allowed me to explain sin and the curse of death to him and how sin separates us from God.
But then I was able to share the wonderful truth with him…that God sent His son to die on the cross for us. That because of Jesus, God isn’t angry with us anymore. He doesn’t want to punish us for our sin and He loves us so much. I told Him that God loves him so much and He wants to be his friend. His best friend.
I watched as all the dots connected in his young spirit. Then, I asked “Mark would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your savior. Would you like to ask God to forgive your sins so you can be best friends?”
Yes. He said yes.
It was a moment I will treasure forever. Hearing this young man of God confess his sins and his need for a savior.
It’s moments like that.
Moments like the time I sat in the dirt under a tree while a group of 8 or so children crowded close around me to hear bible stories, to share their favorite bible verses with me, singing songs like “Jesus loves me.” It is Joshua, the oldest in the group chasing me down the street just before I leave to give me a bag full of oranges he ran to pick from his back-yard. He is using a circle of children to give me a glimpse of how He felt when He said “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
It’s sitting in a shady, sun-speckled yard encouraging and praying for Sharon who is in her thirties, has four children, a frail body and test results that tell her she is HIV positive.
It’s hearing the stories and dreams of young men like Angel and Alex (whom I mentioned in my blog “Meet My Friends”).
It’s moments like those that God is using to piece back together a heart that has been broken and cracked and damaged. He is using the beautiful people of the world to show me why I exist.
But most of all…
He is using them to give me my heart back.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.” -Jeremiah 31:3-4
