Benaiah
The Lord has built. Someone came to me with a word for the
baby that was in my belly, and even though the name they heard wasn’t my baby’s
name, it was a prophetic word for me
and the baby.
I had struggled with giving my baby a name to honor the ones
who had been less obviously loved by me before that year. I had ‘favorites’,
even though I tenderly loved other brother’s, cousins, parent figures, and
in-laws – it was hard for me to demonstrate that love in the shadow of my very
vibrant connection with my ‘favorites’.
Someone told me they felt like God spoke to them about the
baby’s name, and they asked if we had already chosen a name for our newest
addition to the family. I smiled and tilted my head to one side as I shook my
head no. We had a name in mind that was not exactly what we were looking for,
but our hearts were still searching for the perfect name.
The name from her was a
message for me and the baby, not a name for the baby. She said a name kept
popping in her head when she thought of me in prayer. It was my birth father’s
name, she had no idea. She excitedly asked if I thought that God was showing
her our baby’s name. I delicately let her know that it wasn’t our baby’s name,
but a confirmation in the direction we were going with our baby name search. It
confirmed our command to honor those we had ‘overlooked’. We were so humbled. In
2009 and 2010 we were on the path to truly deepen humility and to go lower
still. We learned that it was impossible for us to continue in ministry without
learning the lesson of honor. We saw a scripture verse that jumped out at us as
we read the Bible. Then the same verse was a key scripture in the next message
we listened to over the internet from Bethel church in Redding California. We listened
to Bill Johnson preach about honor. It was crazy how the verse was exactly what
God had plastered on the wall of our hearts that very week. (Matthew 10:41 – it
rocked our world)
My hubby and I had a direct word from God to honor my birth
father as we named our 3rd son. It was confirmed as she whispered his
name in my ear. He is a man that I have compassion for, and I am grateful for
his role in my life. I have become a more compassionate person because of my
relationship with him. His name was a reminder that we were on the right path
to love the least of these. We have a command to love people for who they are
in Christ, for the destiny that God has spoken over them and built inside them,
not to see their behavior and temporary shell as their merit for blessing and
honor. Wow, I could love him for his destiny, not only be compassionate for his
need. This was another truth that began to apply to almost every aspect of my
life in that season.
Look for what God has done, for the calling God has placed
on people’s lives, and for the blessing that He is giving through them, and it
is easy and light to bless the least ‘worthy’ person according to our immature
standards. Ok, the blessing in our son’s
name isn’t to pass on a family legacy or to name him after my birth father, but
to learn the message of his name. What was the message? We were still waiting.
We knew it was about honor, strength, and destiny…..
Soon after that evening, something randomly pointed out a name
in a scripture verse (yes, we are those people with kids who have Bible names-
we’re missionaries, Christians and church goers. It was bound to happen) There
is was a warrior, a strong man. One of the strongest, whose name was given the
honor of not only being recorded as a might man, but actually the great feats
of strength and victory that his valor deserved. Wow! A man of honor and
strength. We felt a tug at our hearts. We wanted to call our lil pumpkin
Benaiah. We asked a friend of ours to confirm the significance and root meaning
of the name.
“The Lord has built” That shook us up, from our head to our
toes! That was the summary of everything that God was pouring into our hearts
and over our thoughts.
We had cried over the challenges of starting a ministry base
from scratch with next to nothing – our faith was that small. We felt like it
was almost nothing, only enough to help us survive in our poor decision to go
back to the mission field and finish what we started. We didn’t have funding for building projects, administrative
loopholes, or any other high cost of starting a new ministry in a new place,
but we had a word from God and a go ahead from our spiritual parents and
pastors.
We had been in Chimoio for a long time, we prayed for more
funding and buildings to house our beautiful Mozambican children, and our
missionary family. A dear friend of ours
stayed in our house during our furlough in Colorado in 2010 while our family spent
precious time in the states, and prepared for the birth of our third son. He
has stayed connected to us ever since. He loves our family! Wow! He prays with
us, encourages us and gives to our ministry.
We didn’t plan that. We didn’t ask him to give a donation to
keep the ministry going, or to develop the center. He just gave sacrificially
because of his love for this big International family! We had seen little
progress in development and construction. We had requested electricity year
before it was installed, we had a tiny source of water from a hand dug well.
Everything was so slow going. We desperately wanted to build and develop.
We left Chimoio for our 5 month furlough that year wondering
why we kept at it as missionaries. We knew it was the children and not the busy
work of administration or the hope of building, but we still needed more buildings,
more funding, more hep. As we just waited before the Lord in worship and
prayer, he spoke to us about a spiritual foundation. He was building Iris
Chimoio in a totally new way. It was different from our previous years as
missionaries, and we suffered under challenging circumstances. Yet, we had strong relationships with the tiny
growing team. It was more like a family. We kept talking about family. In 2010
we knew it was a family that was growing steadily. God told us that ‘He has
built’ Iris Chimoio. It’s a children’s center, a soccer pitch and a church. We
didn’t have much of a children’s center. River of God was a boys house and a
girl’s house that was unfinished, but livable. The kitchen was an outside
kitchen that social welfare didn’t approve of, as well as the bathrooms. The soccer
pitch was tiny. It was a tough time for our little International family and our
bigger International family to grow. It felt more like stretching than growing,
it was probably both.
When God spoke to us in the past tense, that he has built it, in reference to everything we
dreamt of for our family and ministry in Chimoio, we started to see things
through his lens. He has done it, it is finished. Time is not the issue, God is
working on our hearts. He is building a kingdom building in our hearts. He
lives in us. Everything else is a bonus….all the blessings here tell of His
goodness, not of our splendid prayers or ability to organize, work and lead.
It was a shift in our thinking. Our baby’s name was and is a
strong reminder that we are not building the buildings at the center, we are
not building the team or growing the family – God is and he loves doing it with
us. We are a part of this, but it is not about what we can do. It is about
knowing what God has done in the spirit, being at peace on the path he set
under our feet, and going through the door that he has opened in front of us.
Its all about him. He has built. Not only is it all about
him, God challenged us to not only let go of our thinking and planning about
physical building and team building, but to trust him, that he will send provision
and people to build, he will send people to the team, and he will grow this
family.
Since that day that we got our son’s name, we have seen many
miracles of grown, building, and provision that we did nothing to attain.
Literally nothing. We just love our children, and he keeps doing things for
them to remind us that we love them because he loved them first. He provide, he
loves and he is faithful.
God has built.
Today my husband is in Africa working on many administrative
tasks, and closing out a rental house because God said it’s time. Our things
are going in many different directions. Some friends and pastors have new to
them furniture or housewares, while somethings that can handle storage in a
shipping container are being neatly packed into the container at the center.
They will be used in the missionary housing God is telling us about. Something
we have seen, but never known the time to start, or who would do it. It seems
that what God is doing is so unimaginable even to ministry people that we don’t
know how to explain it. People are coming, helping, serving, loving us, and
building without any burden on us. Its like a dream. There are building
materials being brought to the center! There are workers that we are not paying
to build, someone else is. Who does that?
Jesus! He loves to lavishly love us. Seriously, what person
can love us that well. It was six years ago when God not only said that he has
built the center up, and that he (my husband) is not going to have to build the
buildings. When God told us that he has built – there was a tag line, “so you
don’t have too.” I felt like he was showing me people coming and building. Ok
for some of you who have staff and workers, we couldn’t afford to hire a team
of builders, and we were literally out of fire to manage big building projects
again.
As I prayed more about the buildings that God has built at
Iris Chimoio he spoke into my heart and spirit, saying that we didn’t have to
do it. The fire didn’t run out because we spent it, but because we don’t need
to do it this time. I heard him say, “I’ve set these projects in other people’s
hearts to come and build your dreams.” Who does that? Who comes to serve God
and bless us? We’ve seen people who wanted to come and build something else,
but that wasn’t the promise. We just had to wait, and right now the team is
steadily building at the children’s center. They are doing it. Coordinating
with our vision, and doing all the work. Who does that?
God has sent the builders.
I didn’t know what that would look like. Its Amazing! Its not in my University
non-profit Administration books. Its fresh and new to me. I’ve never heard of
this before. I’m sure there are other testimonies like this, and MORE to come!!
As people give wholeheartedly and step out in loving service to the body of
Christ.
I’m thrilled to thank the people who are coming to River of
God Children’s Center and pouring out love in practical and lavish ways!!!!
In Papa God’s perfect time, we are seeing this happen.
We have a beautiful family, and so many blessings. We can’t
describe them all, but we can glorify a loving God who delights in giving his
children good gifts.
Dream with God, follow him, and obey. He is doing a good
work. Its not about what other people can measure, it is about how intimately close
we are to our loving savior, and how deeply our hearts beat to the rhythm of
his.
It’s good to be loved, it’s great to love others. Something
about that tells the story better than anything we could ever try to say. We
couldn’t plan this, we can’t make any of this happen.
We can let it unfold as we say yes to Jesus…Its our joy to
be loved by him.
Lots of love,
Missionary Momma Mia
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