The Beauty of Story

Many moons ago when I was just a wee little man I had two favorite movies, the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. You know those movies that mom puts in to make you happy or just to shut you up for a little bit. Well those two movies put me in a trance. I was the kid who would sit in front of the television and an earthquake could not distract me. It was almost as if just for a brief couple of hours I would enter into a different world and be part of an incredible story. Yes, Disney stories are indeed incredible. There I sat, my body nestled in some cozy sheets on the couch, but my mind running through the open savannah with Simba or fighting off Gaston on the castle tower. Those were the days.

 I have been captured by the element of story. As human beings, I think there is something very special about a good story that grabs us and draws us in. I have to laugh because it seems that when I get together with certain groups of people we are always sharing the same stories over and over again. You’d think that they would get old, but we’d all laugh and cry like it was the first time we heard it. Rich or poor, old or young, we all have stories. They travel with us where ever we go, they are a part of us, they connect us with one another.  I was thinking about my favorite movies and books and the reasons why I liked them so much. What I found is that I desire and value the characters for what they stand for, but more importantly what they do in reaction to their values.

 The people in Ecuador don’t have much, but they do have great stories. Having time to sit and listen has made things personal and sometimes hard to deal with. Just this past December a thirteen year old girl gave birth to a baby boy. She was raped, but of course no charges have been pressed. Because of her young age no one thought that she or the baby would live. My friend Nora stayed and prayed at her side the entire time she was hospitalized. Miraculously both of them lived. Nora told me that the girl is a fighter. Just last week she checked up on her and told me that she smiles a lot and found that she is still going to school!

 I can go on and on with the stories. Every time I walk into the orphanage, I know that most of the girls are there because they have been raped. When I walk in and look into their eyes they smile, and when I speak bad Spanish they laugh.

Ecuador has broken my heart and made life personal. The thirteen year old mother and the girls at the orphanage are my heroes. Their reactions to the hardships of life are incredible. They have truly found that their stories are a part of the much bigger and better story of Christ. I can't help but think of the Hillsong song called Hosanna. My prayer is simply their last verse that says

 Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity.

God is doing great things in all the earth. I am so blessed to be in a community that is infected with the Holy Spirit in an effort to bring the Kingdom of God to earth. Being down here has put me face to face with some of the horrors of the world, but God’s healing power is awesome.  There is so much love here.

Peace and Grace

 Mom and Joshua

Baby Yarinah