Katie Shares An Unexpected Moment in Volunteering
Yesterday at Orlando Children’s Church I had the opportunity to lead a group of middle school girls. Usually I work with the younger ones because that’s my comfort zone, but God let me know He had other plans for me. The thing is He always has other plans for me, and they always exceed my expectations. I had a group of 7 girls and the focus of our discussion was the many aspects of God’s love, and where you can find them throughout the Bible. We followed a set of discussion questions and Bible verses that really helped lay a foundation for what God’s love is and what the world defines love as, and how both of these ideas can be so easily confused.
It got real when we started sharing our own testimonies of things we struggled with. I shared a couple things that I have been struggling with recently and I asked God to help me be completely transparent with these girls, that they could see the love of God through me in whatever way He desired. I started to cry a little as I told them some of the battles I was fighting because I wanted to be real with them, putting up walls only causes people to question. I could feel God speaking through me, and they were locked on to my words.
Somehow at the very end of our discussion of love we were all left sitting at the foot of the cross. We talked about patience, kindness, truthfulness, all the many parts of God’s love, and when all was done and stripped away the only thing we could think about was the greatest display of love ever shown. I had one girl who was at OCC for the first time and I could tell she was searching for some kind of truth. She asked questions and listened carefully the whole time and I just prayed God would reveal something to her. As we ended the morning reflecting on the cross, she sat there silently for the first time.
Then she looked me directly in the eyes and asked, “Why did Jesus die for us?”
Being able to share the most important truth with a young girl who had never even heard of the God that loves her more than anything was something I would have never expected to be a part of this past Saturday. Volunteering at ministries, going to church, being at OCC every Saturday morning with these kids, all of these things come down to moments like this. The moments when God puts you in the life of a person and you have the opportunity to share the truth about why Jesus DID die for them. It’s moments like this when you say to yourself…..now that’s what it’s all about.