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1.19.2015

The Challenge, for One Child, One Card 《because our God leaves the 99 for 1》




Before I was born, before I cried my first cry.  Before my new lungs filled with oxygen, God knew me.

He had my life planned--all my days from the first moments until the lasts. >>Psalm 139

Jesus set me apart, chose me to be His ahead of time.  He chose to give me a heart that would beat with His same glorious love and compassion.

While the ink covered my tiny newborn feet, was stamped onto my birth certificate, my Heavenly Father was looking into my future with a smile.  A knowing smile that saw me as those same feet walked along the dusty red dirt roads of Uganda, the Pearl of Africa.

Children who were starved, strangely enough not so much for food, but love.  A touch. A hug. A smile.  All my life I had known that four letter word.  It was my inhale, exhale.

My parents, whose love for God surpassed even their love for me demonstrated His love to me.  From the time I was very young, for as long as I can remember they shared the love story of Jesus with me.  The precious story of all time, more valuable than life itself.  The greatest treasure of all time, beyond time.  >>John 3:16

I'm almost convinced that as I grew in my mother's womb, as God shaped my heart, He also planted a seed.  As He knit me together, their was a thread in the fabric of me.  The scarlet thread of His love that was for countless orphans.  Imprisoned abandoned children kept in remand homes.



God chooses us.

Mere flesh and blood formed of the dust, sustained by His breath.

We are flawed, hopelessly flawed.  But, He knows our greatest state of weakness produces pliability.  The best clay His Potter's hands could ever mold into the likeness of Himself.

He chooses us.

Beckoning, whispering in hushed excitement He lets the invitation be given:

Show them My love, give the world My love.  Don't keep it tucked away, hoarding it like buried treasure.  Let it spill into the light.  My Love is a precious treasure meant to be shared.

So I flew half-way around the world to Africa.  The purpose was to spread that love.

And God gently says to me now, as I remember:
This is for ones in desolation who need to know there is still hope on their darkest days.

>>This is for the 3 year old boy in a prison--looking dazed, confused, lost, forsaken.  
He was sick with pneumonia the month before and was currently on treatment for malaria.
You took his tiny hand in yours.  You picked him up, carried him.  He sat beside you--and you heard Me whisper, "Wash His feet."  So, you washed the caked red soil of Uganda off with your water bottle, pouring it gently.

>>This is for a girl, who was not much younger than yourself.  
She wanted a Bible and said she liked yours.
At a word of nudging scripture from Me, you reached into your backpack, wrote her name inside  letter by letter in blue ink.  It was put into her hands--she pressed it to her heart overflowing with joy and smiles at the gift of My Word.

>>It was for a boy 11 years old or so, whose smile spread out slow and big at the rainbow letters of hope found through the words of My love for him.  One card, one bright ray for one boy.  Because I am a God who leaves 99 for 1.

>>It was for a 4 year old boy named William.  All the other kids his age had been adopted.  He alone was left.  If someone didn't adopt him soon, he would have to go away to school.
He soaked up every minute of your attention {or at least he tried}.  He loved books.  As you sat there with him flipping through pages, he keeps saying something.  You think did he really just say that?  And it comes again and again, "Look Mama, see that."  Mama.  The first time a child has ever called you that.  It was My words fulfilled to you weeks and months before going to Africa.  Although it is a common term for anyone who takes car of/shows love to those at the Babies Home, it makes your heart skip a beat...it breaks in two when you have to leave.  You cry while you grab your backpack and retreat to the door as you listen to his cries.

>>It was for those in a classroom at one of the prisons.
You stood before the room at the teacher's desk offered to you, a blackboard to your back.  Facing a room full of student desks and children pressing around your own.  They all wanted your help and attention at once to make Rainbow loom bracelets.  Somehow they were made.  A wave of emotion swept over you in that room.  You wonder about teaching someday.

>>It is for the sound of voices lifted in worship in a village church.  African drums beat.
It is there among brothers and sisters of the faith from another nation the deep knowing wells up in your heart, sure steady.  "Uganda is home."  The three words that you wrote in your Bible.  They were told later that afternoon in a broken voice which stretched miles to tell your mom.  Your dad was sitting there with you, touched.

>>It was for the little boy who gave you the first hug you received from a child in Africa at the same village church.  Another took your other hand and they led you in to My house.  My love was given for the sake of people knowing it and showing, shouting it to all they meet.


I don't know about you, but this American has never known hunger or malnutrition. I have not been imprisoned.  
But, I know ones that are.  

I implore you from the very depths of who I am...
voicing a need, advocating.



Please be the balm of healing to these broken hearts.  Share God's love letting it spill out of your hearts and onto the pages of just one card, for one child, to change one life.

This is my Valentine Card Challenge to you.

Will you take it, for one?


Start With Me by Meredith Andrews on Grooveshark

2 comments:

  1. Hello Crista!
    What a joy visiting your blog! Praise God for the burden he's put in your heart for the lost. So pleased to see this cards sending effort to these children. Please let me know how can I take part in this mission.
    Thanks
    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words! Here is a link to my post with steps on how to take part: http://uniquelyfashionedforhisglory.blogspot.com/2015/01/valentine-card-challenge-1400-cards-by.html?m=1

      Delete

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<3 Moriah