Diamonds in the Rough

story from Juliet (DTS student)

I have four words for you that I have been convincing myself to learn this week: Go. With. The. Flow.

For some, that is a piece of cake. But for me, order is my middle name. So here I am on the border of Myanmar (Burma), learning to be open each day to the little things God asks me and our team to do, to the surprises and changes in our schedule that are simply a way of life here.

One day, I found myself on my knees at the garbage dump, praying with a six-year-old Burmese refugee.

We were surrounded by mountains of bags and bottles. Trash as far as I could see. My team was there for a few hours to give milk, chips and crackers to the kids who know this place as home. Their homes were huts built on stilts that hover over ponds of waste.

As I knelt there, praying with the little boy, I asked God to make a way for him.  We had been playing with him and the other kids, making them laugh and doing anything to make their day special when every other day is spent working or climbing through the mountains of trash.

How do I tell these kids that God sees them, knows them and loves them? Will they even believe it? I can only do my part, to plant the seeds of love and truth, and trust God to bring others after me to water and grow them.

I think that if God were to be anywhere, speaking to anyone, he would love to be here talking with these treasures who are found at the foot of the mountain of trash.

As I learn more each day to “go with the flow,” it has been so rewarding as I crawl into my sleeping bag at night to know that I dedicated myself to whatever God wants, to going where the Holy Spirit wants me. Because that is where I find these treasures, these “diamonds in the rough.”