What is God Doing? (Georgia)

If we believe that God is everywhere then what is he doing there? What has he been doing at training camp, with ministries we are working with, in cities we evangelize in, at home, in my teammates, my leaders, the world and even strangers. God has continually shown me that he doesn’t merely reside everywhere to know everything but he is everywhere to do his work. 

In one of the first few weeks in Georgia my team and another team got to go to a town about an hour away called Clarkston and evangelize. It wasn’t our first time, but we were told that this town was the most diverse town in the United States and so we didn’t know what to expect. We went there and were told to begin by praying with your partner, so me and my friend, Analise, went to sit down and before we could even get to a place to sit someone walked up to us and started talking to us. He didn’t expect us to talk about or ask questions, so for a long time we stood there and listened and asked about his life and his family. He loved to talk and was so happy that we were willing to listen. After about an hour we started asking him if he knew the Lord and what his relationship with him looked like. He expressed he knew the Lord but not the best he could, we told him about community and joy even in the suffering and then prayed over him. We kept walking and praying and we saw our teammates talking to a muslim woman who didn’t know english. Some of my friends on the other team even cut and dyed their hair in a barbershop to share the gospel through google translate to the people cutting their hair. We talked to about three other people that day, all of a different ethnicity and all willing to talk to us and listen to what we had to say. 

About a week later, my team got the opportunity to work with a ministry called Beautiful Feet that helps  women who have been sex trafficked and abused. We went to their house to help paint and ended up in conversation with the three of them about their stories and what we were doing for the next nine months. I was shocked, these women have been through more than I could have imagined. The hardest part to hear was how corrupt their perception of love was. They had been bought, sold, arrested, manipulated, groomed, abused, neglected and lied to for over 20 years. It was heartbreaking and heavy. Yet they were some of the most fervent women of the Lord I had met. It didn’t make sense to me, I was sitting there listening to them thinking “this isn’t real, there’s no way they did this big of a 180.” I genuinely had a hard time believing them and seeing them so joyfully talk about their stories. All I could do was fall to my knees in awe and start praying. As my team went to paint we prayed over the home and talked about what it meant to us to be able to be here and hear their testimonies. 

They invited us to come back that weekend to hang out with them before we left Georgia and we were so excited to get to spend more time with them. We went and bought them flowers, hot chocolate, and sweets thinking we were going to bless them and do more ministry. 

We walked in the door and they all greeted us with hugs and smiles. I immediately felt the unexplainable joy and peace of the Lord again when I saw their faces. They were so excited that we came back, but not so we could be a blessing to them but so that they could bless us. They were the ones ministering to us and it had just hit me. They told us about a ministry that goes into the streets of Atlanta and invites the women living on the streets to come and hear about Jesus, get their feet washed, hear scripture and learn what true love is. They called it “Princess Night” and they told us they wanted to do it for us. We were in shock, we didn’t feel worthy of letting these beautiful women wash our feet, we thought we were there to wash theirs. 

They had coffee, food, pastries, and juice for us and a whole day planned. We had no idea how to act or say thank you. These women embodied redemption and faith better than anyone else. And not only were they believing it for themselves, they wanted to share it with others. They were transformed, completely, and ready to do that for others. 

We talked with them for a long time about them and us and Beautiful Feet and then they started washing our feet. My whole team gathered around and watched these 30 year old women bend down and wash our feet one by one. They put a crown on our heads, anointed us with oil and read scripture over us. We were humbled, blessed, and in awe. 

This reminds me of the story of the woman at the well. I now know why Jesus chose to first tell that woman who he was. These women are beautiful, cherished, redeemed, powerful and on fire for Jesus. They aren’t defined by their past or slaves to their sin but set free and called Princesses of the King of Kings. In fact, we all are. We all get the opportunity to be a part of his Kingdom.