growing in faith

As many of you know, I have been working with Nidia starting up our girls' ministry here at Zion's Gate Ministries. So far, we have begun focusing most of our efforts on the older three girls (Dania, Fanny, and Jennifer). We meet with the girls every Tuesday to pray and discuss a devotional, and on Thursday afternoons we meet with the girls in IHNFA (a government orphanage) and our girls teach the girls there. In the beginning, the girls were very shy and hesitant to participate in our Tuesday meetings, and even more-so at IHNFA on Thursdays. They always were embarrassed to pray out loud and fought about who would lead the study.

[Dania, Fanny, Jennifer, & me]

Until one Tuesday afternoon when we met in Fanny's house...

I was leading the study that day and we were talking about prayer. Prayer is not some big scary formal thing, it is just having a conversation with God. You do not have to use fancy words or a certain format, just talk to God like he is your best friend. We also talked about how prayer is not only for asking God for things when we need help, it's a way to praise Him for everything He has done in our lives and all He has given us. At the end of our conversation, we had a time to share prayer requests. Most of their requests were for school, health, family, and provision. When we got around to Fanny, she said she wants to learn how to pray. It was such a sweet and innocent request at the time and I do not think she knew what the Lord had in store for her!

A few weeks later, Dania stayed the night at the property during the week and I was able to spend some time with her one morning reading a devotional and talking about it together. The devotional was about how sometimes God allows bad things to happen but He always has a purpose. Dania began to open up about her father's suicide for the first time. The next day, we had our meeting with the girls in Los Pinos and Fanny volunteered to pray! As we read the devotional, Fanny related it to the situation with her grandma and family. Her grandma, Mina, got sick and was in the hospital. Mina's daughters (Fanny's mom and aunts) are constantly fighting and plotting against each other. But with their mom being in the hospital, God was using the situation to bring them closer together in unity as a family.

Fanny ended up sharing this message during one of our nightly meetings as a family, at IHNFA, and even at the hospital with her grandma, mom, and a few of her aunts. I am so proud of her and excited to see what God has in store for her in the future as she continues growing in faith!