Answered Prayer

Confession time. I had been feeling pretty useless here in Nagarote. It seemed to me that I was spending most of my day experiencing the culture or taking care of Charlotte, and very little, if any even, of sharing the Gospel in an eternally valuable way. Now, part of this might have been because Charlotte wasn't feeling well and needed some extra TLC (which I was HAPPY to give), but the other part was that, without a translator available consistently, I hadn't been able to share with the children or adults around me about why I was here.

So yesterday, I poured my heart out to Bruce. And then this morning, I poured it out to God (I know, wrong order). In my alone time, I prayed and asked God to make me useful here. Even if it was in ministry to my own team. I just needed to see why I was here.

And God is so awesome that not less than 30 minutes later, he answered that prayer... and then kept answering it all day!

During our morning group time, another team member recalled a conversation she and I had the day before. In it, I had given her some practical advice that it was a good thing to do social work, pass out toys, clothes, candy, hugs, etc... but that if they didn't know WHY we were there, then all those clothes, crafts, and toys, were of no eternal value. I told her we needed to tell them we were doing these things because Jesus loves us and because he loves them.

Without that knowledge, our gifts are useless. No one else saw my tears, but I knew her sharing that story this morning was God's way of letting me know I was being used. Now, she has made sure the entire team is certain to make it clear WHY we are giving these things away to meet the practical needs of Nagarote.

Everyone learned to say Jesus Christo te amo, or Jesus Christ loves you. It isn't much, but we pray that by sharing the love that Christ has for these people, it will be easier for them to see Christ's love in us.