Meanwhile in Africa... Ongoing Love
8/06 This morning I'm recording the "Meanwhile in Africa..." out of Goma. I've been here in our children's camp since very early this morning with Bindu, where we are facing a cholera outbreak, and we really ask you to pray with us, that God would protect all of us. But this morning I wanna speak to you about 'ongoing love'. You know, many, many people all over the world respond at the moment to me and say, what can we do? And I'm hesitant just to answer, because I don't want a quick response, and then we forget. I want us to become aware of what's happening in the world ongoingly, and I want us to respond. [Hello Sasha!] I want us to respond changing our lifestyles, the way we pray, the way we live and the way we give. That's not easy for all of us. Many of you can remember the story of Alliance, the girl with a stick that had such a cross face. Nobody knew where she was from. Then we tracked her down and she became part of our Care Point, and I saw her change into this amazing girl, full of laughter and joy. Well, when I met her again this time, she was just dirty, depressed, and broken. It shattered my heart, you know. I found out that somebody was abusing her physically. They burnt her school clothes, burnt her school books to prevent her from going to school. And there she was weeks after it happened. I saw her. And I just realised, you know, love is not a success story instantly, it's ongoing. So, we had to pull her out of that depth - that miry pit, you know. Buy her new school clothes. Get her new books. And this week I sent her to school again with Bindu, and once again I could see that smile on her face. You know, it just helps me to understand Alliance's story, in the beginning, was a great story. But that's not enough. We're gonna have to keep fighting for Alliance because she was rescued once, but like all of us, she needs to be rescued continually. As we reached out and gave her a second chance, that's what Jesus does for all of us. That's how we need to be with each other. For that, we need to have eyes that can see, and we need resilience to continue to push. May God bless you as you change people's lives.