a divine appointment

April 25, 2009

So today was teens club in the morning into the afternoon. I helped lead a small group of younger teens on the topic of friends and peer pressure. It went really well.

Tonight was bible study with the Flying Mission short termers, but tonight was different than usual we had 2 new friends who attended. Mapula and K who are both from SOS children's orphanage. They are both in their teens now so they are allowed more freedom and can stay out late so they took advantage of this freedom to come to our bible study. Mapula is one of my good friends at SOS, but I had never met K before. During the study I noticed that K was extremely quiet, only speaking when spoken to and even then the response was as short as possible. At one point he did speak to ask what a specific verse meant, but you could hear the nervousness in his voice when asking. In attempt to figure this kid out my social work self accidently made a few awkward eye moments during the study. After the bible study part of bible study I sat by K and tried to lessen his nerves with conversation - I failed - he seemed to become even more nervous. So I started talking to the people around who would talk back until I got a tap on my shoulder. It was K. He said softly "Let me tell you my story." "OK" I replied and I tried to turn to help myself focus on only him as there were people conversing all around us. He slowly, quietly, a few words at a time, began unfolding his heart wrenching life story to this girl he had just met. His mother had died the day after giving birth to him. His dad did not want him. His dad's family and mom's family fought over him because they all wanted the assistance that would come from his being an orphan. He was taken from the aunt that had ended up with him when she was found drunk and K neglected. He was brought to SOS when he was only 4 months old. He was allowed to go home a few times during holiday when he was 13, but his mom's family would not allow him to sleep in the house unless he brought them money. He had no way of getting money so he went to his dad's family who sent him back to his mom's family, but he knew that he could not go in so he went back to the orphanage. That same year he asked his house mom at SOS if he could go to church. He wasn't sure why he wanted to, but he did. His house mom told him that if he went to church he would not be given meals for 3 days and he would have to stay in his room. He asked why but she was silent and just walked away. He went to church anyways. He didn't know where church was, but he just started walking. It was far, but he made it ok. He continued going after that day and got involved in the choir where they gave him his first Bible. He said "Jesus is always with me." He explained that some people call him a prophet and there has been a few times where he has known things that he didn't know why he knew them. Tears were rolling down both my cheeks as I listened to how God had scooped up this child of His and guided him so clearly to Himself.

He stopped and looked at me in the eyes and asked "Can you help me?" I asked "Help you with what?" "I do not like people. At my house when people are in one room I go to the bedroom and when people come to the bedroom I go outside." I told him that I couldn't help him, but God could and I asked if he had talked to God about it. God brought 2 Timothy 1:6 to mind "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but of power, of love and of self-discipline." We read the verse together. I knew that this was a divine appointment and could sense God's presence was heavy upon us. Our whole group prayed for him. By the end of the night he was singing and joking and really seeming to have a good time. Praise God! His story was really an encouragement to me and I know that he will be telling it to thousands at a time one day!