Two days into being in beautiful Swaziland, we were able to get on wifi and I was definitely stoked for the moment when I finally would be able to tell my friends and family about how wonderful this land and its people are (possibly the most beautiful people I have ever met). When I got online I saw a message that had said that one of my dear friends had passed away Monday morning. It hit hard and fast.
What do you do when you lose someone and you are a world away from everyone you know?
What do you say when you can’t come running home?
What do you do when you feel like no one around you truly understands?
The only thing you can do is turn to God.
I lost my friend Lily about five months ago, and God was about the last person on my list to go to. It hurt and I had nothing to say to him. After just beginning to process through that death, and really reignighting my fire with the Lord, I knew this time he had to be the first on that list.
Throughout that day and the next day he blessed me in so many ways.
I was blessed with teammates who just wanted to love on me and pray over me all throughout my mourning process.
I was blessed by Job (from the bible) who showed me what it looked like to be able to question God and why awful things happen.
I was blessed by the beautiful creation around me.
The biggest blessing of all though, was the blessing that came the next day.
I was blessed with a creator who reminded me that he wanted to and has plans of healing me. I was blessed with a creator who wanted to show me his love, and did it in an amazing way. This came in a different form than I had imagined and isn’t done coming. I found out my ministry for the next two months was going to be teaching preschoolers at a care point (which is kind of out of my element, but something God put on my heart). As we were pulling up to meet the teachers we would be working with God said to me, “Healing will come through children.” As soon as my ministry partner, Bella and I got out of the van we were immediately swarmed by children who were hugging and loving us. I felt more loved in that moment than I had in a long time. God immediately reminded me “My love is like the love of a child.”
In fact God loves me so much that he took me all the way across the world to bring healing and comfort in such a dark time. When we give up our pain to Christ he does nothing but love on us and bless us.
