Tonight was a very sobering evening as all the children in the Benin orphanage gathered around me to pray for my itchy skin to be healed (exzema rash on my arms). They sang some precious songs to God, then one by one said a beautiful prayer over me. The sobering part was looking out at all of them so passionate in their love for God and others and remembering where they came from just a short time ago.
Some were rescued from domestic slavery, abuse as well as others watched parents die horrific and sad deaths through murder or AIDS.
As they were praying the 3 who were directly standing in front of me where a sibling group who just last year watched their parents brutally murdered by a thief that broke into their home one evening. The youngest one, then two was found laying over her mothers bloody dead body crying. The pain and scaring they came with is unbelievable, and now they were extending out their hands to me praying the most precious prayers over my life. That just blew my mind and put a huge lump in my throat.
I then started looking around the room as my eyes were supposed to be closed. I could not help but breath in this moment in time when I could watch each passionate prayer of complete selflessness from ones whom I knew in normal circumstances would be cursing the world for the injustices done to them, and yet I was witnessing this beautiful picture of redemption.
Thank you God for redeeming them, restoring them and bringing them to life in you.
The sweetness of tonight is embedded in my mind for years to come.
