Placing my baby in the river
"Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for 3 months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile." Exodus 2:1-3
This past month, I have grown close to a girl named Maria. Maria is 13 years old, and and reminded me of one of my cousins. This girl could light up the room with the spark of life that she has in her. Her smile and joy is so contagious. This past month, my squad and I were able to witness her accepting Jesus into her life and be baptized. Seeing all the joy Maria has, she has a hard and dark past. She was kidnapped by and elder man. She was rescued and dropped off here. Normally when rescues happen the person only stays here for a couple days. Maria has stayed here just a little over a month. I know that God brought us to her, and her to us. However, Maria doesn't belong to our contact, so she had to go back to Infa. Infa is just like a government home. A place where kids go until they are 18, and then probably kicked out. We woke up on a Thursday morning, prayed over her, shed some tears, and then let her go.
This past month, God has been teaching me so much, but this has probably been one of the most impactful things that He's taught me: Giving up my baby. Maria has such a special place in my heart, she seemed like a little cousin to me. I have only been here for a month, but God has made Maria so special to me, but then he taught me to give her up. He let me love this girl, play with this girl, and even cry with this girl, and now He's teaching me to let this girl go. Normally I'm alright with leaving people for a while. I know that they are in great care, and will be there when I come back. However, this is way different. Maria is gone. She is with the Honduran government right now, and I probably won't see her again. But this is when God steps in, and reminds me that He created her. He created this joyful girl who loves life. He created the girl that would sit up on the roof with me and listen to music for hours. The girl who would play soccer with me, and totally show me up.
Moses' mom had to do the same thing. She was only allowed 3 months with her baby boy, until she had to place him in the river. Place him in God's arms, and let God take care of him. This is what my squad had to do. This is what I had to do. We had to let go of this special girl, and give her back to God. We had to let her go, and know that God is going to love her 100 times more than we possibly could. We were able to minister to this girl, and witness her coming to Christ. Now God has her, and we know that God will take care of her, just like how He took care of Moses.
