Hope for each one...
I flipped on the light as we all rushed into the room that was filled with big brown tables and little plastic chairs. Over a year had passed since we had moved into our new church building, but the air still smelled of new carpet, and the words from Isaiah that spoke about growing "Oaks of Righteousness" were freshly painted on the walls. Carefree laughs and giggles surrounded me, and as we shoved the tables together, plunked down on our chairs and began taking turns sharing our highs and lows from the week, I was overwhelmed with gratefulness.
That night, visiting with the grade six girls (who had since become grade seven girls), I was not there as their youth mentor, I was there as their friend. I got a chance to hear about what was going on in their lives, to meet their new leader, and to catch a glimpse of what I believe God's heart is for his precious daughters. Only a few weeks before, I had been in Nairobi, Kenya, chatting about God and life with girls in the slum there, and now, on the other side of the world, I was coming to realize a bit more about how big God is and how small our lives and worlds really are.
I was realizing how awesome and overwhelming it is to have a God who cares for every single hair on our heads. (Luke 12: 7)
Now, as I am here with my team in Guatemala, and we prepare to leave for the Philippines to live in a safe house with girls and women, I look not just to the gospel and Jesus, but to my home in Oakville to know what God desires for His daughters.
The girls in Oakville have a God who loves them, and cares for them, and wants to fight for them. God wants to give His daughters safe places to laugh and feel loved and be cared for, places where they are safe from the pain and the evils of the world. Where they can dance to a Taylor Swift song, and then open Gods word and talk about what it means to them.
And God wants it for each one. Each precious daughter, each precious gift He knit together.
And so as we prepare to leave for the Philippines, to work with girls who have experienced unimaginable pain and heart break, whose innocence has been taken away way to early, I will cling to hope.
The hope of T-shirts and shorts thrown on before school. The hope of bible studies with friends where they tell silly jokes as their leader tries to refocus them. The hope of homework, and classes, and the chance of a normal life.
But most of the hope of Jesus. The hope of redemption and new life, of relentless love and unending Grace.
The girls in the most dark and broken places deserve safety, purity and innocence just as much as any girl in North America, and I pray that they will know that they have a God who sees them as worth it.
Will you join me in prayer as we prepare to go to the Philippines ?
Please pray for broken hearts to begin healing, for lives to be restored, and love to be given, in the name of Jesus.
Because we have a God who is the living hope for each one.
Thank you for your unending prayers, friendship and support in this season. If you would be interested in making a financial donation, I would be so grateful ! Please click the "support me" link for more information, and if you feel led, please feel free to share this blog with anyone who might want to learn more about getting involved !