The Vigor of Verbiage
Which is to say, the power of words.
On Sunday I had the chance to share a trip update with my church family at CHBC, an opportunity which I greatly appreciated because I know they were praying for me while I was in Sudan. It was a privilege to let them know how their prayers were answered.
At the conclusion of the message, Pastor read from my last Weekly Reminder e-mail, which was the text that I first shared on this blog. The story was very meaningful and moving to me, and listening to my own story being read was a weird experience. It took me back to being there, sitting in that church, listening to the story of the Sudanese Church of Christ.
It was that transformation that started me thinking about the power of words. But it was only the beginning. It did not take long, or many people, to encourage me beyond belief simply by thanking me for sharing, and to answer my prayers by telling me that it had impacted their hearts.
But it was the words of a teenage girl that really made my day. She told me, with all the sincerity her teenage heart could muster reflected in her eyes, “I wish to tell you that I really appreciate you putting your life in danger for the widows over in Sudan. You made God happy by what you did.” And you know, in all the thinking I’ve done about all this, I had never thought of our work quite like that.
It was a reminder to me that sometimes the best gift that can be given–at Christmas time or any other–is the simplest. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make someone’s day.