It has been 18 long months of writing proposals, red tape and waiting. Many of you have been praying alongside me during this time. I can enthusiastically announce today that I am officially the Shelter Supervisor for Agape International Missions Belize's (AIM Belize) AIM Restoration Home, which will be a long-term shelter program for young people coming out of sex trafficking.
If you regularly read my blog, you know how much I've struggled and stressed, hoping, waiting and despairing that it was taking so long. The faith journey is a hard one when the promises you're holding onto are nowhere in sight. Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
This waiting in faith reminds me of the Christmas story. I'm currently leading our church's production of a Christmas play, which highlights humanity's long anticipated arrival of a Savior. The human heart knows there's something more to existence than the tangible life we see around us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." The spirit yearns to encounter something or someone who will make sense of the chaos, relieve us from pain and give us hope and meaning. Christ's birth fulfilled centuries of anticipation, giving humanity a picture of God in the flesh.
I am filled with hope as we scurry into the Christmas season; reminded that God's promises are "yes and Amen," that He is still in the business of rescuing hearts and lives out of darkness; that His return is another long-awaited promise to be fulfilled.
If you are heart sick from the wait, I'm praying for you in this season. If you find yourself wondering about the Christ part of Christmas, I pray that you would open yourself up to what He might do if you let Him in. His presence is worth the wait.
To learn more about AIM, follow the link to their website here: aimfree.org
For info specific to their expansion into Belize, follow this link: aimfree.org/belize