My God does miracles. Every single day, all over the world. Amazing. Beautiful. Miracles.
With my own eyes I have seen blind eyes see light for the very first time. With my own hands, I have felt tumors disappear. With my own ears I have heard the deaf speak for the very first time. In my own joints, I have felt pain evaporate. My God does miracles. They get me every time. But this year, on January 1st, I saw Him do a miracle that is going to ring in my heart forever.
This is the kind of miracle that you can only see with the eyes of your heart.
For many years, a beautiful lady that I work for taught me that spending your day in the garbage dumps of the earth is heaven's idea. That they are the happiest places to go because it is in these places that Christ comes and lifts the poor from the dirt and the needy from the trash.
So, we are in Central America....and we want to go to a garbage dump. Because that's what we have been taught to do, and there is nothing else we would rather do.
So we try to go. We get lost. Driving around the city for hours. Finally, the dump is found. In one of of the most notoriously dangerous sections of the city. It's a place that is so dangerous, that there is only one road to go in or out.
We find the garbage dump. It's the end of the work day, so not many people are at the dump. We go to the village connected to the dump. Along the way we visit a young mother who tells us there is a pastor in this village who works very hard, giving his life and heart to the Gospel- but his family is very poor and has nothing.
We buy food in the little shop for people and spend time delivering it. And at just the right moment, we walk back through and run into the Pastor's wife. We sit with her in her little house, sing her happy songs and hug her. Her husband stops in, on the way to church. And many beautiful things happen, but we end up filling their pockets with heaps & heaps of cash. More in that moment then they probably have ever seen in months.
And the Pastor's wife, with tears in her eyes told us that two hours ago she was standing in front of her mirror getting ready for the evening church service. And in the middle of her poverty & hopeless situation she said, "God, you have abandoned me"
But God
My God
Her God
He didn't abandon her. Before she even spoke those words, love was on the way. A small group of Americans were driving around the town, looking for a place to deposit the hope of Christ that rescued them & the pockets full of cash that God had planned just for her.
They didn't know where they were going. Or really what they were to do once they got there. All they knew is that love shines brightest in the darkest places on earth.
And it does. It showed a sweet lady that the God she pledged her life to serve, also pledged His to her. He promised that He would always take care of her. And He did, and always will. Before she spoke her words of despair, He had already set his wild love plan of care into motion.
Heaven had her set up for that ambush. We would of never thought to go to a garbage dump if God didn't give Winnie the desire to go to them over 30 years ago. We would have never gone to that dump if she didn't teach us that no matter what, you find them, you search them out and you go. It was no mistake that we got lost, that our schedule ran late so that instead of spending our time in the actual dump- we spent it in the village next to it. It's no mistake that we chose the village entrance we did, and at the perfectly timed moment, we walked by the lady who told us we needed to visit the pastor's family.
A beautiful lady, who God paid everything to call His own, thought that He had left her.
Make no mistake, God doesn't abandon.
With my own eyes I have seen blind eyes see light for the very first time. With my own hands, I have felt tumors disappear. With my own ears I have heard the deaf speak for the very first time. In my own joints, I have felt pain evaporate. My God does miracles. They get me every time. But this year, on January 1st, I saw Him do a miracle that is going to ring in my heart forever.
This is the kind of miracle that you can only see with the eyes of your heart.
For many years, a beautiful lady that I work for taught me that spending your day in the garbage dumps of the earth is heaven's idea. That they are the happiest places to go because it is in these places that Christ comes and lifts the poor from the dirt and the needy from the trash.
So, we are in Central America....and we want to go to a garbage dump. Because that's what we have been taught to do, and there is nothing else we would rather do.
So we try to go. We get lost. Driving around the city for hours. Finally, the dump is found. In one of of the most notoriously dangerous sections of the city. It's a place that is so dangerous, that there is only one road to go in or out.
We find the garbage dump. It's the end of the work day, so not many people are at the dump. We go to the village connected to the dump. Along the way we visit a young mother who tells us there is a pastor in this village who works very hard, giving his life and heart to the Gospel- but his family is very poor and has nothing.
We buy food in the little shop for people and spend time delivering it. And at just the right moment, we walk back through and run into the Pastor's wife. We sit with her in her little house, sing her happy songs and hug her. Her husband stops in, on the way to church. And many beautiful things happen, but we end up filling their pockets with heaps & heaps of cash. More in that moment then they probably have ever seen in months.
And the Pastor's wife, with tears in her eyes told us that two hours ago she was standing in front of her mirror getting ready for the evening church service. And in the middle of her poverty & hopeless situation she said, "God, you have abandoned me"
But God
My God
Her God
He didn't abandon her. Before she even spoke those words, love was on the way. A small group of Americans were driving around the town, looking for a place to deposit the hope of Christ that rescued them & the pockets full of cash that God had planned just for her.
They didn't know where they were going. Or really what they were to do once they got there. All they knew is that love shines brightest in the darkest places on earth.
And it does. It showed a sweet lady that the God she pledged her life to serve, also pledged His to her. He promised that He would always take care of her. And He did, and always will. Before she spoke her words of despair, He had already set his wild love plan of care into motion.
Heaven had her set up for that ambush. We would of never thought to go to a garbage dump if God didn't give Winnie the desire to go to them over 30 years ago. We would have never gone to that dump if she didn't teach us that no matter what, you find them, you search them out and you go. It was no mistake that we got lost, that our schedule ran late so that instead of spending our time in the actual dump- we spent it in the village next to it. It's no mistake that we chose the village entrance we did, and at the perfectly timed moment, we walked by the lady who told us we needed to visit the pastor's family.
A beautiful lady, who God paid everything to call His own, thought that He had left her.
Make no mistake, God doesn't abandon.
