Send Me, I'll Go...

me and my sweet Lillian

We slept in tents inside the metal building that really looked more like a shack. Every morning, we would get up and be ready to eat breakfast. Every morning for breakfast we would have homemade doughnuts like pastry and they were simply amazing. We were told that girls usually gain weight during the trip because carbs become your best friend. After breakfast we would take turn washing dishes and spend an hour in quiet time with the Lord. VBS was next on our agenda, where I would see my sweet Lillian laughing and having a good time. She would always take my arms and wrap herself in them. During VBS we would teach kids of God’s love, sing songs and play games with them. For lunch we would eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (every single day…sometimes twice a day) and then we would go off to the near by villages to interact with locals through community service.

I recall a day, when we went to pick up trash in the near by village. The place was covered with paper wrappers, animal bones and all kinds of yucky items. After gloves were distributed we started to work. Some locals couldn’t understand why Americans came to their village to pick up their trash and were pleasantly surprised by our actions. Before you know local children started to mimic our action helping us pick up the trash. My Lillian was my helper and her bare hands would grab whatever was before her and throw it in the trash bag. At times I wasn’t sure if I was picking up the bones of a goat or some other creature. However, children did not care one bit that they were picking up odd object without gloves. We finished our task and it was time for us to go back to our shack for lunch.

As we were walking children started to follow us and all of a sudden I felt someone grabbing my hand so tight that it scarred me. When I saw that it was Lillian’s hand my initial reaction would have been to jerk my hand back. As I have mentioned before, kids did not have gloves when they picked up the trash. However, at that time, I didn’t care about her dirty hands and instead my hands tightly held on to hers. Before going on this trip, I prayed that God would allow me to touch the untouchable and love the unlovable and He was faithful in answering my prayer. Through Lillian God showed me how much He loves His children. He doesn’t care about our dirty hands or our dirty past; He loves us all the same with love that is beyond our understanding. Psalm 58:8 says, “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever”.

The love that God gave me for Lillian was unexplainable. I never knew that I was capable of loving a stranger so much in such short period of time. It was as if God kept on pouring in to a cup that was overflowing with love for my sweet Lillian. One day our group went to a local school to teach children about God. On our way to school I saw Lillian going home with her friend for lunch. After hugging me, she didn’t just walk home she ran home. That child must have been moving 70 mph because half way through our walk to school she ran up to me and grabbed my hand with a bowl of food in her hands. That day, one of my teammates preached God’s Word to the little ones and a big crowd of children came to know Jesus! AMEN!!! My Lillian was one of them. She frantically was searching for me in a large crowd and when our eyes finally met, I felt like I was a proud mother of this beautiful little girl.

To Be Continued….