I Have Been Thinking

I have been thinking about a moment that happened back when I was still in college. It was 2010 and I was with a good friend of mine. I told him, “I feel like I am finally becoming the man I always wanted to be”. He said, “That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard and I’m really happy for you.” Not more than a year before this the Lord supernaturally brought me out of an 11 year addiction to pornography. 

Not long after that conversation I traveled to Malawi for the first time and all of WtS began to unfold. I am grateful the Lord shows us who he created us to be before he shows us what he created us to do. If it was the other way around, I fear more people would believe the lie that their value is held by what they do and not by who they are. 

I am a child of the creator of the universe. Heir to a king who gave his life for me. My identity is not wrapped up in what I did, but what he did for me. God showed the Israelites they were his chosen people by miraculously delivering them from slavery, THEN he gave them his commandments. I find this order of events quite encouraging and refreshing.

Eager Expectation

This last week a number of us at WtS started dreaming about what is ahead. We’ve had a really rough week with a few very heavy cases. I think in some ways dreaming about helping more girls in the future was an appropriate reaction to the tragedy of the sexual abuse cases we faced. 

First, the school is progressing very smoothly. School blocks one and two are getting ever so close to completion! Ground has been broken for the administration building and architectural plans have been made for staff housing. If everything continues at this rate, we should be able to open for January’s school term! 

In addition, dorm number 3 is only 3 weeks away from being occupied. Our maximum capacity of girls will go from the current 36 in our safe home up to 54. We will no longer be restricted to only take the cases from one of the four Victim Support Units within 45 minutes of the safe home. The VSU in our community of 40,000 people is primarily the only one that is able to refer girls to us because there are just so many cases and we don’t have enough space to house more girls. All three of the other VSU’s have expressed their eager expectation to one day be able to refer cases to us instead of just sending the victims home without receiving any care. We are also longing for this to become a reality. 

So what were we dreaming about? We are trying to figure out which is our next most pressing need; dorm number 4, a clinic, or a high school. We don’t know when we will have funds to be able to begin our next project, but a year ago we didn’t know how we would build dorm 3 and an elementary school… and here we are! So we find ourselves dreaming big. 

“Assuredly, like the coming of the dawn
The Father’s love song goes on
Drowning out my bitter songs
Breaking through walls and barriers
Christ swoops in, removes sin
Picks up His bride and carriers her
So I can sing in agreement with the King”

“Not Without Love” by Jimmy Needham