My heart has been so touched by the San Carlos Apache people this week.  What joy I experienced when I was accepted unconditionally by so many.  We shared lives this week.  Lives that are so different in so many ways, yet so similar in so many ways.  Yes, we have a different color of skin, different color of hair, different color of eyes; yet inside we are the same.  We share the same needs......to be loved, we share the same desires......to live healthy and happy lives, we share the same problems........we are sinners, and we share the same Savior.......Jesus.  This week I have wept with them, rejoiced with them, worked with them, and tonight.......I thank God for them.  I am a better person for knowing them.

 

Two precious ladies touched my heart tonight in such a deep place that I didn't even know that place existed.  I saw and heard pain come out of two hearts that have seen and felt so much more trauma in life than I will ever even be able to imagine.  Sorrow, confusion, heartache, abuse, death, addiction, dysfunction, separation all came pouring out of them into me and I realized that God was giving me a gift.......a gift of connecting my heart with theirs.  A gift meant for me........a gift meant for them.......a gift of stepping into the lives of two other believers so that we could walk through life together, encouraging one another in our walk with the Lord. 

 

Tonight I was asked by one of my new friends to pray over her nephew who was being taken away to a detention center in Phoenix.  Several of us gathered around him, holding hands and praying for him.  Multiple prayers went up at the same time for this young man, especially for his salvation.  When we finished praying, a pocket Bible was given to him by his mom, who had just become a believer on Sunday.  She told him to carry it in his pocket everywhere he went.

 

After he was taken away by the social worker, my new friend poured our her pain to me.  She told me that she had taught her nephew everything he knew; how to steal, how to do drugs, how to be dysfunctional.  She shared with me that she never bought anything in her life, everything she ever had......she stole.  She said she was always high on drugs and that she was a very bad person.  As she was sharing this she was weeping, weeping, weeping over her sin.  She was in agony as she watched her nephew being taken away and knowing that she had been such a bad influence on his life.  As she finished, the Holy Spirit began to minister to her through me.  He told her that she was forgiven because of what Jesus did for her on the cross and that she was washed white as snow.  He told her that she had a new life in Christ now and that her nephew was in God's hands.........that she was to pray and pray and pray for her nephew and to never give up until her nephew came to know Christ as his Savior.  As the Holy Spirit ministered to her through me, the Holy Spirit ministered to me through her by showing me that I am exactly where God wants me to be and doing exactly what God wants me to do, walking in obedience.   Then my new friend began to tell me how happy she is since she accepted Christ as her Savior 6 months ago.  That life looks and feels so very different.  That life is good and full of peace and joy.  That all of her needs are being met.  That God's word is true!  My new friend, filled my cup up tonight and runneth it over!   

 

Over a game of Hand and Foot tonight, my other new friend who is just 19 years old, shared with me how, since she has found Christ as her Savior, everything in her life is different.   She is filled with JOY......JOY that can only come from a personal relationship with her savior, Jesus.....JOY even though both of her parents died just recently from alcohol related illnesses.....JOY even though she has been separated from her siblings.....JOY because she knows God is in control and she doesn't have to worry about anything.  JOY because she has a hope and a future in Jesus.

 

Tomorrow we part.  The most difficult day of any project for me.....leaving behind those I have come to love.....and as I have come to understand, the most difficult day for the ones that have come to love me.  We say our goodbyes, give our hugs, share our addresses, phone numbers and promise to keep in touch.  My new friends.  My new blessings.   To God Be The Glory!