Our 10 teammates included people from all across the United States. We were brought together because of our support of the Mocha Club, the desire to serve, and a great God!! Andrea, Rainier and Nan (from CA), Sarah, Travis and Beth (from TN), Anna Marie (from AL), Bindu and Gwen (from VA) and me (from MD).
A song by Gungor says, "Could a garden come up from this ground at all?" We spent our first few days with the Women At Risk program in Nazaret, Ethiopia. These women bravely shared their stories about how and why they entered into a life of prostitution. They shared about the impacts both positive and negative about that line of work. How could the Lord truly create a garden out of prostitution? How could anything beautiful come from something so difficult? Gen 50:20 says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Could their struggles and lives covered by grace really bring others to salvation? Over and over, we heard powerful stories about how women had been told about the Women At Risk program by others who had gone through the program. They were able to leave a life of prostitution and run into the refuge of the Women At Risk Program.
Together, these women raise up prayers and sing praises to the Lord with a passion and conviction that is seldom seen here - and enviable to me. As a team, we frequently noted how we had forgotten that the life they had previously lived and only saw grace... The chorus of the Gungor song says, "You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us" As we drove away from Nazaret, Travis played this song for me and nothing could have been a more appropriate description! Truly the Lord is making His people beautiful!!!
A song by Gungor says, "Could a garden come up from this ground at all?" We spent our first few days with the Women At Risk program in Nazaret, Ethiopia. These women bravely shared their stories about how and why they entered into a life of prostitution. They shared about the impacts both positive and negative about that line of work. How could the Lord truly create a garden out of prostitution? How could anything beautiful come from something so difficult? Gen 50:20 says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Could their struggles and lives covered by grace really bring others to salvation? Over and over, we heard powerful stories about how women had been told about the Women At Risk program by others who had gone through the program. They were able to leave a life of prostitution and run into the refuge of the Women At Risk Program.
Together, these women raise up prayers and sing praises to the Lord with a passion and conviction that is seldom seen here - and enviable to me. As a team, we frequently noted how we had forgotten that the life they had previously lived and only saw grace... The chorus of the Gungor song says, "You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us" As we drove away from Nazaret, Travis played this song for me and nothing could have been a more appropriate description! Truly the Lord is making His people beautiful!!!
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