A couple of weeks ago, we were able to spend time with
a family from the States who were here to take their new daughter home after a
long adoption process. The daughter they
take is very close to our hearts as she was the first Ethiopian girl to befriend
our daughters. Fluent in English, very
hospitable, beautiful in nature and appearance, Lidiya opened her heart to our
daughters, to us and thereby opened our hearts to her.
For the first time that week , I heard the story of Lidiya
from her mom and her social worker. This
is the short/gap filled version of her story…but sufficient enough for you to
get the picture. Both of Lidiya’s parents died (her father
first, then her mother) and she was left with her mother’s sister who took her
under her care. This aunty had a baby of
her own, a beautiful girl we know as Haben.
Haben and Lidiya were like sisters but when Haben turned two, her mother
left them both with her 13 year old sister Zenash while she went to live in
Addis Ababa. Abandoned and afraid, the
three girls were left to fend for themselves in their little mud clad room in
one of the darkest streets in Debre Zeit.
There were many nights where Zenash had nothing to feed the girls so she
would give them water and tell them that this was their dinner.
It just broke my heart to hear their story. Zenash was in a place of desperation, as she
did not have the capacity to look after these two babies. The desperation got so bad that one day when some men came and offered Zenash some money to take Lidiya from her, she took the money and Lidiya went into a house that could have led to other places, if not for the intervention of the social worker and director from BCI who rescued her from their dirty hands.
Somewhere along the way, BCI were able to
take them into their programme and Lidiya came into contact with a short term
missionary, whose name was Beth Trexel.
She asked Beth to take her home, to put her into her suitcase or find
another way for her to go with her to America.
Lidiya cried out in desperation to her God, that He would rescue her from
the life that seemingly was not the life of freedom she knew God wanted to give
her.
God heard her cry.
God hears the cry of the broken and He rescues. I was reminded of this yesterday as we said
goodbye to Lidiya and prayed for God to use her in this new country she would
call home.
The Israelites were in the same position of desperation and
they called out to God to rescue them:
Exo 2:23-25 During those many days the king of Egypt died,
and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for
help. Their cry for RESCUE from slavery came up to God. And God heard their
groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob. God saw the people of Israel--and GOD KNEW.
So God pulled aside Moses and showed him what He would do:
Exo 3:7-10 Then the
LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in
Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their
sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a
land flowing with milk and honey... And now, behold, the cry of the people of
Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the
Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will SEND YOU to Pharaoh that you may bring my
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
God uses PEOPLE –simple, plain people – even people who have
made mistakes and who seem ill-equipped- to be rescuers.
God is using the Trexel family to be that Love Rescue for
Lidiya. He wants to use so many more
people to be Love Rescuers for Him.
There are so many people crying out to God to be rescued from their
desperate situation. He is calling
people aside to be vessels of His Love because He sees and He knows their
situation. Unfortunately because of our
limited abilities, we don’t know the whole situation so we don’t always feel
like we necessarily need to or can be the rescuer. But that is where faith and obedience comes
into play. If God says Go, we need to Go
in faith that He will be there along the way.
I love that God rescues.
He rescued me.
“The rescued are often the best rescuers” – Israel
Houghton. Has God rescued you? He will use you to rescue others.
