by Emily B., DTS student
An unexpected chill danced through the air. I pulled my jacket even tighter to me. I thought we had left the cold snow behind in Madison, but it seemed to have followed my team all the way to Juarez, Mexico, where we would work for the week at a children’s home.
I kicked at the brown dirt and twigs on the ground and looked around at my teammates. I wondered if they felt the same thing that I did, if they wondered what good they could do in these kids’ lives in such a short time.
John, the team leader, suggested we walk around the facility grounds and pray. “We need to ask for God’s heart for this place,” John said. “We need to understand how He sees these children. We don’t know how to help them on our own.”
I paired up with one of my friends and we headed toward the playground and school building. We lifted our prayers to the Lord and took time to listen. We rounded the corner of the building and I looked toward the dry, desert ground in the distance. A patch of color caught my attention. As we drew closer, I realized it was actually a garden. Just below the snow were leaves and the buds of new growth.
And then I saw a bird’s nest, tucked under the eaves, away from the wind.
In the stillness of that moment, God whispered to my heart: “I make all things new.”
New like a baby bird in the spring ready to fly, ready for new adventures. I thought about how this children’s home was like that, too. The children’s home is a refuge–from their broken families, a broken city. It’s a nest of safety in a city that’s made its name a synonym for violence and danger. It’s a nest where the children will be nurtured instead of abused, fed instead of starved, loved instead of reviled.
All of these thoughts came to me in a moment and filled me with such excitement! What a privilege to work here with God!
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