Jacksonville, TX 2011: Day 5

The progress that we’re making on our various projects is unbelievable. We have totally gelled as a BrickThink team in concert with the team from Father’s Love.  Praise God!

The highlight of the day was sharing our testimonies with the girls, 13 and over.  We were asked to lead the worship. The session began with Melissa inviting Praise Reports– the blessings that the girls had receive, and prayer requests, for the troubles they face. Several of the girls requested prayer.

We decided to teach two songs: “There’s No One Like Jesus” and “I have a Father.”  Before getting started we introduced ourselves and the girls were simply fascinated with the diversity of our background.  They immediately asked that we sing the first song in Swahili.  After giving that a bit of whirl and the girls trying to catch on to the unfamiliar sounding words they were ready to return to English.  We then taught them the dance moves that go with the song.  At first, the girls were a little shy–worried, as young teenagers are wont that doing the dance moves might be a little lame or corny.  But a few found Lisa’s beat on the makeshift drums just too irresistible.  So they girls doused the moves with some local flavor and just danced!

But then Enshil from Korea stepped in.  She danced with abandon and the room caught fire, especially as she pulled the first few that had started things off to the front.  Not wanting to be left out the inhibitions fell by the wayside and everyone “walked around here and there, searched around here and there, looked around here and there to find there’s no, there’s no one like Jesus.” These girls were singing at the top of their lungs and dancing for all they were worth.  When Lisa finally paused they looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, begging her to resume.

To say that they were warmed up is an understatement.  They loved  “I Have a Father,” too, also with an African beat.  We then briefly shared how we had each come to develop a personal relationship with Jesus.  They listened with rapt attention, some nodding their heads in recognition or agreement.  They then asked questions such as “what happens when you ask God for something and he’s listening to someone else?” “How Jesus helps with anger?” “How long you known each other?”  ” How can you pay your bills when you return home after after paying for the trip and taking off work?” What they seemed to be seeking was knowledge and examples of how they can know and trust that God is faithful.

Sharing our stories
We then broke into small groups to pray with the girls.  In the groups we learned more about their lives and several revealed the heavy burdens that they were carrying.  One described how much better she felt after Godfreda prayed over her.  She’d confided that her mother was terminally ill and her father had been “lost.”  In the group that I was part of a girl described how much it hurt her that her father wished that she’d been born a boy, and just didn’t love her the way that he did her brother.  Referring to the song we sang earlier, she said that by knowing she has a heavenly father who loves her, she wouldn’t care so much about what her earthly father thought of her.

These girls were so softhearted.  The facade of “cool” crumbled almost immediately; it simply couldn’t sustain against their hunger and thirst for the truth.  It confirmed what that they’d been hearing at Father’s Love all along.  But hearing outsiders from all over the world say the same thing meant the world to them.