The day everything changed...

‎"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes." David Platt

I read this... and it just shook me... and took me back to the time when I couldn't name ONE orphan by name- When I didn't want to think about all the fatherless children, their conditions, and their need.... I remember a time that it was so overwhelming that I wanted to stick plugs in my ears to block out their cries. I ALSO remember the first time I stood face to face with an orphan. I was nervous, unsure of what to say (especially since my "spanglish" was a little off), and didn't know what to even do with them. I was in Nicaragua and I was 19 years old. I spent more time painting a room than I did loving the kids.. because I just wasn't sure. Yet, I knew in my heart... "I need more of this."

21 years old... and I find myself standing in one of the largest orphanages in Guatemala. It's night, and I'm sitting in the middle of what would be filled with soccer balls and kids during the day... yet it is completely silent. And I lay, looking up at the sky... and in the complete darkness, I saw the MOST beautiful stars I've ever seen. It was THAT moment that I knew my life would be changed FOREVER. Because in the complete darkness of the stories...horrific ones... I saw the most beautiful children...the stars of THE FATHER's eyes. I saw Jesus transform children from darkness to light... from ashes to beauty... and I felt Jesus inviting me to be a part of THAT! It was that trip, November 2000, that I knew their names, their stories, held the child no one wanted to because they were covered in lice, scabies, and HIV+... It was THEN that I became "Gloriously Ruined" for the sake of HIS children. How could I ever forget the things I had seen? How could I forget the 50 2year olds putting themselves to bed and crying to sleep? How could I forget the nightmares they had a night with no one to calm them? How could I forget the stories of restoration? I COULD NOT FORGET THEM! What once was something SO uncomfortable...now was literally a part of my oxygen... I can't STOP loving orphans. I can't DO ENOUGH. And I DIDNT do this... God did... He changed my heart with some pretty amazing little children... who are now beautifully grown teenagers. And the Why is always JESUS.

Do you know an orphan by name? Can you remember holding them and feeling the ache of leaving them behind? If not, GO. There are SO MANY wonderful ways to GO. GO AND PRAY. GO AND LOVE DEEPLY. GO AND BE CHANGED. I DARE U 2. (shout out FBC McKinney)