My Africa, My People

"C'mon, Luce, let's go to the store..."

"No! I want to go to Africa!" she answered.

"Ok, but let's go to the store first" Daddy reasoned.

"I want to go to Africa first, to see my friends..." she insisted.

"Well, we'll go to Africa soon to meet our new friends, but first let's make a quick run to the store."

"Ok" she agreed, and off they went.

One of the gifts God has given me on this journey is the reminder that He has not just called me, or Derek, to be missionaries in Africa. He has called our entire family- and that includes our children. To watch how God has birthed a desire in my two year old's heart to call Africa her home, has been nothing short of amazing. To watch how, even at 2, He has begun drawing her heart toward Him, has been beautiful. An example of this is in the recent tradition we've adopted of memorizing a new hymn each week. I chose the first one, "Before the Throne of God Above". In singing it with Lucy, I thought to myself, "She's never going to understand what these lyrics are talking about..." And she didn't, fully. But after a few days, she said to me, "Mommy, Jesus writes Lucy's name on His hands..." as she demonstrated to me how He did this. "Do you know where else the song says He wrote your name, Lucy?" "Heart!" she exclaimed. And from then on out she wanted to sing the "Hands & Heart" song. This week I let her pick the hymn- do you know what she chose? 

"Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." 

(of course she did...)

  Considering the heightened level of difficulty I have had the last month of trusting Jesus with the unknown, I knew she had chosen that for her Mama (even if she didn't know it!) After the 50th time of listening to it in only 2 days (since that is ALL she wants to listen to for the entire week), I was pretty certain God was using my 2 year old to send me a loud and clear message:  

TRUST ME :)

Last night some friends stopped by our house. Lucy wanted to show them all around her "special house" (the temporary ministry home we are living in until we depart, and which, ironically belongs to the friends who were visiting)...

 
...but she was most excited to show them her picture book of Africa.

"Look! My friend!" she said, pointing to one of her future African friends.

a few pages later- "my church!"

a few more pages- "my people!"

"my Africa!"

...yes, sweet girl.      those are your people.      and you are there's.
Jesus is ours. And we are His.