“Well, I’m a Christian, can I pray for you?”
”haha, do you know how many Christians have prayed for me today?! Three!”
“Wow! I think God is trying to send people to show you that He loves you and cares about you…”
“No. No one loves me…”
That statement broke my heart. I had been walking home alone from the grocery store when I saw a woman sitting on the grass by the road. I asked her how she’s doing and she told me that her tooth hurt a lot and I offered to pray for her. With a laugh and a shrug she accepted the lie from the enemy that she is unlovable and worthless, but God is pursuing her and allowed me to be one of those 3 people who got to speak love and life into her day!
…
“I’m sorry, I’m not good at talking.”
Sophia, a teenage girl we met in downtown Perth, was deeply insecure about how she talked. We were having a conversation but kept getting interupted by her doubts of how she sounded. “I’m sorry, I cant explain, I’m not good at this” she said. I felt like God really wanted to tell her that her voice matters to Him and that He loves when she speaks up and expresses her feeling and opinions; that He loves the sound of her voice. So I told her and tears began forming in her eyes…
I was able to share with Sophia about how God is a good Father that is close to His children and cares so deeply about them; she’d never heard about God in this way before!
This is why I’m here. This is why I moved across the world to work as a full time missionary. Because there are so many people in the world like this homeless woman, and so many like Sophia. There are so many people who don’t know the friendship and closeness of God. They are lost in the lie that they are worthless and unlovable, that their voice and opinions and lives don’t matter. They need to hear that there is a Father who wants to bring them close, who wants to heal them and give them a new life full of joy!
The end of the story with Sophia is that she actually got to here the Gospel for the first time in her life and accepted Jesus into her life that day! And the end of the story with the homeless woman is that I got to tell her the truth about herself: that she is beautiful and loved for who she is. It may be the end of my part in their lives but its only the beginning of what God has for them!
And I am so blessed to be included in that. So blessed that you, who support me, are included in that with me too! To be able to sit there with that homeless woman and tell her that she is treasured and valued and beautiful; to be a vessel that God can use to deliver that message of love, I couldn’t ask for anything more!
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 NLT
