Photo by Erin E. Photography
My husband is a pastor and has traveled to Africa numerous times leading mission teams. Although he always asked, I never felt led to go to Africa with him. But in the fall of 2015, it was as if a door opened and I knew it was time to go. Our group traveled through Swaziland, Africa—a beautiful country (like California meets Tuscany)—and the people were so loving and appreciative.
Part of our time was spent visiting villages with medical missionaries who lived full-time in the area. These visits to the villages were heartbreaking as there was much poverty, with many young children who were very dirty, naked, and shoeless, playing in the midst of shards of glass strewn about. No adults were watching the children or caring for them. Many women in the villages worked as prostitutes to the sugarcane workers in the fields nearby.
It was in one of these villages that I met a woman who worked as a prostitute and was also an alcoholic and in poor health. She had a young child who was not being cared for appropriately. The missionaries who lived in the area had visited her often and had shared the gospel with her many times, but she was not receptive. The day we visited her village, I asked her if I could pray with her, and she said okay. God gave me a message of love to share with her. I told her this was the message God had for her: “I love you, because I love you, because I love you.”
This message of God’s love for her provided the breakthrough she needed and she accepted Christ. Her life transformed afterwards. She has given up prostitution and alcohol. She is much healthier and is now able to care for her child. She lives with a missionary who is helping her find other work. Praise God for His message of love that saved this woman and her child.
A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.
