Friday, February 17, 2012

A Drop in a Bucket


I had a sleep-over with a 4-year old on Wednesday night.

Charity is from the local community, Dwaleni, and is part of a family that is becoming like my own.
Photo by Carly B
Photo by Carly B 
She speaks and understands no English at all. She wouldn’t break physical contact with me. She soaked up every moment of touch as though she hasn’t received any affection since her 20-year old mother had twins when she was less than 2 years old. (It’s not a far-fetched reality.)

She took multiple baths from the big bucket in my bathroom, and we treated her dried out and damaged skin. 

Her teensy, malnourished body weighs less than the 18-month olds toddling around base, but she managed to eat several very small meals. She ran around the cottage in a naked flurry of SiSwati-spoken excitement when she not only found Lifa’s toy box, but learned how to play.


The next morning, her eyes, that look like they’d seen 60-years of pain, started looking younger. The cottage filled with visitors, and Charity found herself in the lap of someone combing out her hair, with her limbs spread out for primping, pruning and nail polishing. I secretly rejoiced as she went from silent and solemn to sassy and wiggly.
 
By lunchtime, she was disobeying. And I was thrilled!

So what if my camera has 400 pictures of her fingers covering the lens?
And so what if my coffee table is covered in granola and there’s juice on the floor? (Not the time to mention the volume of creepies and crawlies I host in the  cottage on a daily basis…)

Home is the place where you are comfortable enough to make a mess.

Home is a place where you want to be safely and securely hemmed in.

Home is the place where you know the boundaries, so you can dance all the way to the edge of them.

Photo by Charity
I was hosting just one little girl for just one night.

She came with clumps of dirt in her matted hair, with too-small clothes that carried a festival of odors.

She left with a new hair-style, sparkly pink nails, and a sparkle in her eyes.

Just one little girl, and just one night.

But now there’s one more little girl in the world who knows what it means to be a daughter and a princess, to be plucked out from chaos and to be called worth it. Now there’s several groups of people who know this little girl’s name because she spent the day driving through communities with me, because she felt home in the tightly-knit TTH community, and because I post videos of her on facebook and write blogs about her. 

One little girl in South Africa is like one drop in a bucket…

A bucket that can hold the oceans.

But how can we ever fill up that bucket if we don’t start, one drop at a time?

I’ve been completely caught off guard in the past two weeks, swept away by the passion of one itty-bitty drop.

There’s power in noticing one person, even for one moment.

We were made for this.

At 20-years old, Nesisiwe is raising her four orphaned and sick siblings, sacrificing her education to raise her 2-year old baby sister. She was silent, broken and hopeless, somehow managing to hide behind the weak layer of skin that wraps around her frail bones.


Two days ago, she attacked me with affection and wrapped me up powerfully in her arms and her delight. Somebody responded to her. She felt known. She met joy.

One more drop.

Kevin was invisible. So tiny, withdrawn and malnourished, you could hardly see him.


God told me to bathe him, clothe him, and profess a King David anointing over him. Today he giggles, runs and leaps into my arms when I see him. His community knows his name, and he pushes others out of the way because he knows he’s always got a spot reserved on my lap. He feels worth it.

One more drop.

Given’s body is broken, inside and out. He doesn’t know who he is, and his family doesn’t know what to do with him. Shame is draped over him like the darkest night.

Photo by Carly B

I asked one question. I broke one cultural rule. A floodgate of family has opened. We’re beginning a tremendous and unfathomable process of restoration and being known, one looooong doctor’s appointment at a time.

Photo by Carly B
One more drop.

The God Who giggled with joyful inspiration at the very thought of knitting you together in your mother’s womb…
The God Who almost couldn’t stand the ecstasy of writing out your story, ordaining your every single day before He even breathed life into You…
THAT God… MY God… knows you and made you to be known.

He notices you all the time.
He's enthralled with you.
He's captivated by you.
He loves you.

And He gave us all of Him. IN us. And we can give it away.

We can give one moment of seeing, knowing, loving… just noticing… and be part of a Family being restored. Living Water rushes in like a tidal wave when we're willing to put our one drop in the bucket. 
Photo by Carly B
One drop of blood from one spotless Lamb knew me and knew you in that moment He decided it is worth it and it is finished.

I want to make drops. Everywhere I go. 
I want to make drops because it matters.
Photo by Carly B
I am a drop called Beloved, swimming in an ocean of grace.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Why We Call It Miracle Week


On Monday morning, we woke up to find that a vehicle had been stolen from our property in the middle of the night. It was there when we said goodnight, and it was gone when we said good morning. Nothing left behind except broken glass.

Instead of saying the words that might have popped into these oh-so-holy missionaries’ minds, we started the morning giving thanks. The visiting team was borrowing the vehicle and lost a credit card and an expensive baby stroller and carrier in the theft. They set the tone by praying for the thieves. And speaking blessings over the baby that would be carried in the carrier. The mother even said that although her first instinct might have been to rip the baby-carrier away from someone if she saw it walking down the road, she would, instead, give away the extra accessories that hadn’t been in the vehicle when it was stolen.

We sang to our God and declared him the victor and the giver of good things. We gave no credit and no attention to the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

As the dust settled on University Village (the property we call home) on Monday morning, we headed straight for the red dirt of Dwaleni. I took a team to visit a family of five – five children living within four windowless walls, which enclose just enough space for the queen-sized bed they all sleep on. HIV has wrecked their immune systems, and none of them has been able to escape TB (Tuberculosis) in their cramped quarters.

Their father is dead. Their grandmother abused them. The mother steals money and disappears. They are 20, 17, 15, 9 and 2 years old. They cook on a pile of sticks on the days they have food. When I asked what they wanted prayer for, they asked if we’d pray that they could get electricity. They’ve been waiting on the electric company since 2010.

With tiny, 2-year old hands wrapped around me, we prayed for more than electricity. For the Power and the Light that are everlasting… and for electricity too. And food. And comfort. And provision. Prayed for a way to build them a bigger house. For the oldest to be able to go back to school. And for the perpetual abandonment by their mother to be cut off in the name of the Father’s Family.

That was Monday.

And Monday was the day we started calling this week Miracle Week.
The same Monday we woke up to find that something had been stolen from us, God gave so much more than that. He provided in full, on that day, enough to secure our home, this fertile soil for discipleship, community and a hope to rise up. This week the money was wired over to purchase University Village - $77,000 in the last 2 months! 

And the same Monday we found a house full of orphans with nothing of value on this earth, we called them family and wrapped them in love and new blankets.


“Africa time” was overcome by the agenda of the Kingdom this Miracle Week.

Within one week of meeting this previously forgotten family, God provided food, education, school uniforms and supplies, the beginnings of a process for financial and physical security, and tear-streaked hope.

On Monday, there were empty eyes. On Wednesday, there were streaming eyes and a trembling voice saying, “I am happy.”
 
Weary and revived.
Longing and satisfied.
Desperate and thankful.

This is what Miracle Week looks like.

We live in the middle of miracles every week. This week we looked for them. We had to.

Jesus kept his disciples confused by saying things like, “The Kingdom has come and the Kingdom is coming.” The promises, the provision, the hope, the everything has been finished by His death on a cross. And it’s all coming.

Lifa and I love each other completely. His biological family calls me his mother. So does the Father. We are family. A Miracle family. That has been fulfilled. Finished.  

I haven’t seen him in 7 weeks. The news I received this week, during Miracle Week, says that the times we’re together are only be getting shorter as the times we are apart will get longer. There is not a document at all, much less one that calls us family. Nothing on this world seems to align or agree with the promises we know.

The promises have been made. He does not conflict Himself. He cannot be unfaithful.
In making the promises, they have been fulfilled.
The Truth has come and the Truth is coming.

That’s the miracle.
It’s full of tension because we were designed for the fullness of heaven, all promises completely fulfilled, His Kingdom Come… and we’re here on earth bringing it as best we can.

Miracle Week isn’t full of rainbows, butterflies and fairy Godmothers.
There’s no magic wand. Not even glitter.

Miracle Week started on a week called Passover 2000 years ago, and now it’s every week. Miracle Week has come and is coming.

Miracle Week has left me with swollen eyes, a sunburned face, a broken heart, a consuming peace, a lot less gas in my car, sticky kisses, and a new playlist on my iPod.

Miracle Week is pregnant with promise. Miracle Week gave birth to hope.
I couldn't resist...

Call out the miracles with praise.
Cry out from the in-betweens in thanksgiving.

He’s faithful. He’s good. And He’s the only Constant.
He hasn’t forgotten and He will not forsake.



“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 
2 Peter 3:9

Faithful local volunteer carrying donated food to the family of 5