Fences

We are entering our final day at Kid's Place today.  This week has been eye opening to me (Tim Brock) of the fences or barriers I place in my life.  Every afternoon at Kid's Place there is a group of kids that come and stand at the fence that separates Kid's Place from the outside world.  They all have different stories but similar backgrounds.  In appearance, our background and circumstances, their lives look completely different than mine.  But being here this week I have found that we all have one very fundamental thing in common.  Everyone in this world has a need that nothing in this world can satisfy.  That need is the good news of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday was a great example of The Lord using the body of different backgrounds to accomplish his purpose.  Josh and Amy Burgess are on their 3rd trip to Recife.  Each year they have spoken with a woman named Rita and they have shared the gospel with her and her husband.  While meeting with her yesterday, Rita began telling us that she was just not ready to commit fully to Jesus and give her life to God.  She told us that she didn't feel like she could be good enough or that she deserved heaven.  We agreed with her that no one could be good enough to deserve heaven.  But we shared about the saving power of Jesus' grace. The entire time that we were speaking with Rita, we were talking through our translator Erika.  She we relaying everything we were saying to Rita and giving us her response.  Erika could sense the hesitancy that Rita was feeling and stopped the conversation and looked at us.  She asked if she could say something.  We of course wanted her to.  She then launched into the most beautiful 5 minutes of dialogue that I have ever heard.  I could not understand a word she was saying but I knew what was being communicated.  At the end Rita gave her life to Christ.  The joy on her face was overwhelming.  We hugged, we cried and we prayed together.  A group of people from very different backgrounds rejoicing in the one thing that makes all things new.

There are "fences" in all of our lives that keep us from sharing the one thing that can unite us all.  We are all different and our struggles are not the same.  But if we can just open the gate then we will be able to watch God heal our land.