To kick off my blogs for the New Year, I want to introduce to you Maria, month 3’s Kingdom Hands feature!
During our month in Bolivia, we taught English, Religion and Sports at a Compassion base. If you aren’t familiar with Compassion, it is a Christian organization that connects underprivileged children and youth with families that feel called to sponsor and support them. Through Compassion, children receive education, scripture lessons, a healthy portion of clean food and other necessary care (if you are interested in learning more, please visit the link below). Maria is one of the full time volunteer teachers at Compassion! Maria is only 18 years old, but don’t let her youth fool you, she has her hands in many ministries, many studies and many hearts! While studying Psychology at a University in Santa Cruz, Maria is also in charge of 4 ministries at Church: children, prayer, teen girls and teaching at Compassion. Her passion to serve the Lord is contagious! And her story brings even more beauty to her passion.
Maria’s parents were separated when she was young and her father does not know she exists. Growing up, Maria was in between many poor living situations. Then, she was picked to be sponsored through Compassion! The first time she heard the name of Jesus was in a Compassion classroom. And now? When I asked Maria what her passion was, her response was, “I love Jesus. Everything I have is because of Him.”
When asked about the hardest part of her job (or should I say jobs), Maria mentioned the extreme difficulty of talking with the kids and knowing their living situations and that they do not have a home to go home to. She then continued to explain the brilliant strategy that Compassion uses to extend every penny that Compassion sponsors donate. Maria explained that the money goes towards food, health, scholarly material, career help, teachers, and more (this ministry is legit, I cannot stress that enough!). When I asked Maria what the best part was, her face lit up! “I love to do everything I do! For example, I love to teach, I especially love to teach the word of God and I love helping the kids learn to pray and read their Bibles.”
It’s hard to list one thing I learned from this mature servant of the Lord. From the moment my team and I interacted with Maria, we knew her heart was gold. She beams with joy and has so much excitement for the building of God’s kingdom! I will never forget the moments when, even amidst her busiest days, Maria would see me and drop whatever she was doing to give me a long hug and speak encouragement to me. Maria is so great at capturing this character of Jesus. Jesus was interrupted all the time and took joy in such moments.
In Luke chapter 8, Jesus is in the midst of his ministry, on his way to heal a ruler of the synagogue’s dying daughter (a bit of a rushed situation, if you ask me). While on his way, in the tightly-pressed crowd, a woman reaches for the edge of Jesus’ clothes so she may be healed. When she experiences immediate healing (can we just take a second to recognize how freaking awesome that is… she literally just touched his clothes and was healed from a sickness she had been inflicted with for 12 years! Powerful), Jesus takes notice. In the midst of the mosh-pit crowd, on the way to heal a girl taking her last breath, Jesus stops. He stops?! Talk about calling an audible none of us saw coming. If his power healed her, what’s the point of turning around? To say “you’re welcome”? As Jesus felt power exit him, he took time to stop, turn around and come face to face with one of his daughters. He looked her in the eyes and told her “your faith has made you well; go in peace” (vs. 48). Wow. What a gorgeous scene. It didn’t make sense to stop. Mark even records that Jesus’ disciples were kind of ticked and questioned how he could notice such a moment. But He knew. He knew one of his children was hurting for his attention. And He was more than happy to stop and give her even more.
Just like Jesus in this story, Maria reminded me of the importance of stopping amidst the busy and pausing in the chaos. Our God is in the waiting. Everyone is worth that moment of stopping what you are doing, turning around and meeting them face to face.
Maria’s encouragement: “at the end of the problems, there is a light and that light is Jesus. He is the only one who can help us.” Her favorite scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”
To learn more about Compassion and how to become a sponsor, visit:
https://www.compassion.com/child-development/christian-ministry/
