“Be available” is the what God spoke to me when I first joined staff for YWAM Perth in March 2018.
And now He is reminding me of it again. Working with Aboriginal people requires a great amount of flexibility and willingness to learn and change so this has been a major challenge and privilege for me over the last two weeks!
On Thursday, our team got news that a young Aboriginal girl has recently moved to Perth from the Kimberley and is wanting to know more about God! So, we responded to this amazing opportunity from God, and brought her to our training base to hang out and answer her questions about God!
We shared the Gospel story and I got to share a bit about my testimony. I shared with her a revelation I had from God about how sin is like a prison that you don’t even realize you are in. I shared that Jesus opens those prison gates, but its our choice to walk out of the prison, and stay out. It was so cool to see how that revelation really impacted her. She shared that she had never thought of it that way.
We are still in contact with her and plan to connect again to help her in practical ways, and also go into more discipleship with her. So excited for the increasing soft-heartedness we are seeing in the Aboriginal people!
The very next day, Friday, my friend and I were walking to our base from our apartment and we came across a woman who was clearly in crisis. The Aboriginal woman was slouched over on the sidewalk near a busy intersection. There was broken glass on the floor next to her. My friend, my leader, and I walked up to her and started talking with her. We learned that her name is Tracy and she has schizophrenia. She was also coming down off of some kind of drugs. We got a vehicle and drove her to the hospital, talking with her and sharing about how Jesus orchestrated our encounter that morning!
We haven’t been able to see her since then, but I continue to pray for her and I’m so grateful that God had our paths collide. I’m also broken hearted over how many people at this busy intersection had passed by her. At how many of my fellow missionaries must have passed by her on their way to base. But God did not pass by her. He saw her in her moment of greatest need and I’m so humbled to be able to be used for His glory in that moment.
God is opening doors of opportunity for me and my ministry to work with the ones who have been overlooked and I’m so excited! This is why He’s brought me here.
What are God’s boundaries on His love with us?? He didn’t ignore us because He was running late to work or busy enjoying His day off. He loves recklessly. He’s always available to us. And that goes right along with what God spoke about being available. I am still growing in this but I want to focus on loving like God loves. Being available to care for people, to help, to be there, even if it’s inconvenient for my own agenda. God didn’t put boundaries on his love for me, so I don’t want boundaries on my love for others.