There are those nights that forever haunt you, forever change your heart. Touch you in a way you were not expecting. Those nights that push you off balance yet right your soul. Nights that take you to your knees but send your mind racing ahead. There are those nights that render you speechless as you silently cry out to God.
I am continually broken every time I go to Zambia. It is something that I ask for in prayer. I don't know why I am surprised when God answers, but sometimes I still am. I have been to Zambia four times, and each time God has showed me something else that breaks His heart and that should break mine.
Again, He has answered....
I have been thinking back to a night in Zambia, one that did bring me literally to my knees. A night I spent out on the streets of Lusaka listening to the stories of and talking with prostitutes. It's not that I didn't have an idea of what I was going to see or hear or even what the environment in which we found ourselves in was like, but God gave me encounters with women -- real women -- who are broken, hurt and alone. God once again put faces and gave names to the plight of women and girls in Zambia. I looked into their eyes and heard their stories and listened to their questions and tried to come up with suitable answers.
One said she had told her stories to many before, but no one had done anything. One woman said that this was the only way for her to feed her children. Another said she didn't like this business but had no other choice. In a way, she was right. There is no other choice, no other way for these beautiful, brave women to take care of and feed their children.
Where are we? Where is the church? As I left, I went to my knees asking, "How, HOW, can we just walk away from this? How can we leave them there?"
This has given me new focus as we move forward with our goals to empower women and girls in Zambia. We are to love. We are to give the opportunity of a SAFE, sustainable living. We are to BE the hands and feet of Jesus to women and girls who are waiting for someone to show what his pure love looks like.
We have to get going with what God has called us to do. I know we here at Extending Hands are continuing to prayerfully research and assess what it is going to take to catapult into existence a shelter and safe house for widows, prostitutes and other vulnerable women and girls who have no other hope. What will YOUR part be in pulling women and girls off the streets in Zambia, women who are being raped, beaten and used? What will YOUR part be in giving a widow who has been left with nothing a soft place to land and skills to make a sustainable living? What will YOUR part be in helping girls who have been told they are nothing but future property the ability to understand their true identity in Christ that will far outweigh a disadvantaged beginning?
Join us now as we desperately need your help! We have lots to do before this goal is achieved, but I know we are on the right path -- the path God has placed us on. Walk with us as we commit to changing the lives of women and girls in Zambia. Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Recently, when I was asked to speak at my church, this is what God laid on my heart to share. Now I am sharing His heart with an even greater audience. It is my hope and prayer that these humbly written words will be impressed upon you as you pray for us and consider supporting us financially.
To donate go to www.extendinghands.org or mail at Extending Hands P.O. Box 181 Woodstock, Il 60098
To pray for us, just go to your knees, thank you!
