They are precious in His sight… February 26, 2010

Where to begin? These past two days have been absolutely incredible. Our team has done so much work and we’ve had the chance to experience God’s love and His healing power.

Yesterday we spent our day at Kid’s Club, which is a ministry run by Theara for children in her backyard. During their time there, they are able to play, share, and learn about God’s word. During our time there, we played with the children, read a Bible story, and helped them make their very own faith bracelets. The children got a huge kick out of our cameras, and they loved having their pictures taken. They were so precious–their smiles could light up an entire room, and once they came up to you to hold your hand and ask for your affection you knew that God was at work in their hearts and minds–that He was keeping them safe and happy in His loving embrace. It was wonderful to share that moment with them.

After we played with the children we walked through Theara’s village. I’m drawing a blank on what to write about this–except that it was in complete poverty. I’m afraid there’s not a better way to put it. It was moving to walk through the village and see first hand how these people were living. They had no water, no toilets, barely any food, and their children ran around half naked in the dirt. When you looked in their eyes you could see the struggles they were going through.

And yet…the children were experiencing joy on so many levels. Every game we played brought a smile to each of their faces. It’s amazing that something so little can make such a huge difference in a person’s life. It’s sad to think that we have so much–a house, running water, food every day, a family, and clean clothes, and yet we complain so much about the smallest things. Seeing this kind of poverty really helped us to understand that we are so blessed with everything that we have. Not only that, but we are called to share those blessings with others. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all share everything we had. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone lived in the footsteps of Jesus. What a wonderful world it would be…

Many people praise us for the work we’re doing, and some others don’t quite understand it.

Greg had a great devotional the other night. He read a story from the book, One Month to Live. The story goes like this: A man is walking on a beach when he notices a bunch of starfish washed ashore. The sun is out, and it’s a very hot day. The man knows the starfish don’t have a chance of surviving in the heat, yet he wishes that he could save them all. He continues his walk and sees a young boy throwing starfish into the sea one by one. The man asks the boy, “Why are you even trying? You will not make a difference, for you cannot save them all. They will die in the sun anyways…”  The young boy looks at the man, throws another starfish into the sea and says, “I just made all the difference for that one.”

What a powerful story…

It’s encouraging to know that even when you cannot save the world, you can make a huge difference just by being in another person’s life. Spending time with the children reminded us that even the smallest of things–a simple hug, a handshake, or a smile, can make the biggest difference.

God Bless.

—Jessica

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