Agradecimiento.
Thankfulness. I’d have to say that I am most thankful
for the fact that God does not change.
He stays the same. Everything
is constantly changing around us.
Relationships. People. Places. Plans.
Emotions. We are constantly
changing, and yet one thing remains the same: God.
Relaciones.
It is all about
relationships. We were created to
be in relationship with one another.
God has really been showing me more of Him through the people around
me.
Pety.
Pety, is a 14 year old
girl that truly amazes me. She is
so full of joy; her smile is radiant.
But I can see that she is trying to cover something up. Trying to hide. Pretend everything is okay. I think she reminds me of myself when I
was younger: living under the pressure to pretend that you’ve got it all
together.
Over the past few
months Pety and I have been developing a friendship “poco a poco” (little by
little). She loves painting nails
and doing hair. So I have become
her ‘model’. Everyday she paints
my nails and gives me a new hairstyle as we talk about all sorts of
things. “Poco a poco” the
relationship develops and she begins to open up a little more about
herself. Each day with a new
hairstyle and freshly painted nails, she slowly starts to take off one of the
many masks she wears as she opens her heart.
For those of you who
know me well, I’m not the super girly girl who love doing nails, makeup,
hair. But I truly enjoy that time
I have with Pety. It gives us a
chance to talk and build a relationship based on trust. I don’t know how to explain it, but
sometimes you meet a person who you know God is going to use greatly. Pety is one of those people.
Pety has had a tough
childhood. Really tough. At her age, she has experienced so many
things that I cannot even begin to imagine or understand. A couple of months ago she opened up
with me and shared part of her story.
A story I pray would never happen to another child, and yet a story so
common to the children I see every day.
Our God is a
redemptive God. I feel like I am
just sitting in the front row watching as He redeems these children’s
lives.
Pety is working
through a lot of different things, however normally she is not very open to talking
about God. So “poco a poco” I’ve
just been building trust with her.
Letting her paint my nails, do my hair, do homework, talk, sit, listen and
essentially live life together.
This past Friday
afternoon she approached me and said she wanted to talk. So we sat down on a bench and she
started sharing about how the previous night the orphanage youth were invited
to a big concert in Guadalajara.
She talked about how everybody was jumping up and down, singing, hands
in the air, praising these singers instead of God. And in that moment she realized that she was doing the same
thing in her life. She was doing
all of the right things: going to church, reading the Bible, praying, getting
good grades in school, doing her chores, etc., but she wasn’t doing it from the
heart. She was just doing it
because it is what we are “supposed to do”.
She asked a lot of
tough questions. If God is truly a
good, powerful and loving God, how could He have allowed ________ to
happen? We talked about how a lot
of times it is hard for us to truly believe what the Bible says about God because
of circumstances or things that have happened to us. We read Psalm 121.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that God is our protector, especially
when you have a story like Pety’s.
We focused on the first 2 verses.
“I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2
Our help comes from
the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth. We must lift our eyes to Him. In looking to Him, walking with Him, spending time with Him,
we come to truly believe the following verses (3-8) of Psalm 121 that God
guards and protects us.
“The Lord is your keeper” Psalm 121: 5
It is absolutely
amazing to see Pety’s humble heart in wanting to pursue God. She has a lot of tough questions and
does not understand everything, but she truly desires to seek God. She has taught me a lot. I admire her. A 14-year-old girl is being transformed by the living
God. He has started a work in her
and is in the process of healing her.
It is such a privilege and blessing to witness it.
I’m telling you, I
have the best job in the world. I
get to watch as God transforms and redeems these kids’ lives. For me, nothing is better.
Thank you for your
prayers and financial support that permit me to join what God is doing here in
Mexico. There is no better investment
than in the Kingdom of God.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
~Relationship building with Pety- We are starting a study/prayer time this week.
~Financial provision for the DTS (Discipleship Training School)
at YWAM (starts Feb 28).
~Also that God would continue preparing and humbling my
heart for what He wants to show me during the training.
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| YWAM King's Kids doing a drama at the orphanage! |
