These Miracles

By:  Brenna C. (2015 Team Member)

Today I sat with a group of 8 Neema girls after morning devotionals to processed what Pastor Emanuele had preached on Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Gideon.  I have seen such growth in these young women since last year.  Quiet mysteries who used to sit in silence during small group discussions now share openly, with confidence, and depth of their walk with God and what they are learning, partially due to their improved ease of communication in English.

My heart swelled, inspired, and broke under he weight of these miracles sitting before me, teaching me.  These abused, these abandoned, these so un-nurtured, rejected, many fatherless, who's hearts are filling and spilling over with true understanding of Father-love...from their Heavenly Father.  You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices, and feel it all around them.  They know they are loved, they know why they're here, they understand their value and are bursting with a dignity and pride that is fairly extinct in their culture, especially in women.  They bestow this "Neema.....Grace," that they've received, on everyone around them.  I'll say it again, they are miracles.  If there was ever proof of Christ, it's these moments sitting here with them and witnessing this transformation.  It's hearing them speak, not only, of the transformation they have seem in themselves, but also in the lives of others, some of them the girls sitting right next to them.

Just as I thought I'd spill over with the impossible, quaking beauty of it all, vibrant 18-year-old Irene, dedicated mother to 3-year-old Abigail, turned to me, knocking me off my feet in her melodic Swahili accent.  "Even you, Brenna, you are such an encouragement to us. I knew you last year and now you are so different! You have changed so much, God's work in you. He has grown you." How does one respond to that?

I made several attempts right here and have back spaced them all. Thank you for noticing? Younger girl from a foreign culture and much harder life circumstances, who I am supposed to be "mentoring," thank you for having enough spiritual maturity to not only proclaim God's character and work you see in your own life, but also to look ME in the face and recognize my faultedness and GOD's transformations in my heart that I haven't even recognized myself? I am humbled, by His grace. By these miracles He allows me to know who change me every minute I spend with them. To anyone who questions Christ's resurrection and whether or not He was more than just a "good man..." I wish you could have been in that room with me.