Answered Prayer

Before we arrived in Brazil, I asked the Lord to use us to minister His healing touch to these broken children. I prayed that He would help me gain their trust and share His love with them. During our language training, I was often so discouraged wondering if I'd ever be able to understand and speak Portuguese well enough for this to happen. After being at CLM full-time for only 6 weeks, we have already seen a huge difference in our ability to communicate with the children and understand the staff! And little by little, I've watched, waited, and prayed for the children to feel God's unconditional love flowing through us so they can trust us with their painful pasts. I praise Him for answering this prayer with Maria and Lucilene last night! They were standing alone outside just before dark when I went to give them a hug and ask about their day. Maria had visited with some of her relatives and they had shared several stories with her about her childhood and her parents. She openly shared the stories with me, stopping to explain when I didn't understand. I knew that to share such difficult things without shame or embarrassment was a great first step in allowing the Holy Spirit to turn these areas into victories in her life. Then Lucilene said that she had suffered a lot too before she came to CLM. She shared about physical abuse at the hand of her mother, as well as running for help when her stepfather was going after her mom with a knife. She remembered how hungry she was the night she and her two sisters and brother ran for their life. As I listened, my eyes filled with tears and I shared with them that no child should go hungry or fear being hurt from their parents. I told them that the things they had shared broke my heart but that I knew God had plans for a wonderful future for both of them. Both of them hugged me and agreed that they too knew that God had helped them by bringing them to CLM. Please pray that their hearts would remain open to allow the Holy Spirit to heal the scars left by the emotional and physical abuse they both suffered.