HAIR ON FIRE

My guest blogger is Michele Morin, a woman who seems to spend her spare time praying for total strangers, of whom I was one. I value this woman highly. She is a gift to me.

“You don’t need to fast,” she said. “Your prayers are enough.”

But I did need to fast, because her situation sounded really bleak, and God was talking to my heart about it.

Bev was traveling alone in Uganda when she injured her knee hurrying across a busy street. Swollen to nearly twice its size, the knee was painful. The itinerary called for travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The schedule called for long hours of teaching and counseling.She shared her need for prayer through the medium that brought us together: the Internet.

Bev is a warrior (and a SheLovely) whose ministry allows her to see, firsthand, the burdens women bear, sometimes quite literally. During this most recent trip, Bev saw women of all ages and sizes carry bundles of up to 100 kilos or more on their backs. These bundles are secured by a rag, wrapped around their middle and then over the front of their forehead. The women bend forward to carry the weight, but there’s no posture that will lighten the load of trauma. In the DRC, rape is often used as a weapon of war. Women are marked as damaged goods, husbands abandon them and this back-breaking labor barely finances what’s left of their lives.

Bev returned to her home in Australia, hair aflame. She was excited to share the potential for ministry among women of the DRC whose whole life trajectory could be altered by the ownership of a simple wheelbarrow or by the introduction of a micro-enterprise that will enable them to provide for themselves.

“I think I need to learn French,” Bev exclaimed.

“And I have found a couple of women who are connected to the interior decor industry. They are looking to source products from women across the world.”

If you know Bev, you know she works with urgency. She has realized that God has given us abilities to solve problems and meet needs in our lifetime. Years ago, Bev stood beside a crib in a Ugandan hospital, a witness to one of the 177,000 children living with HIV.

She heard the Spirit say: “You can do something about this if you want to.”

Cherish Uganda was born, a ministry that provides a home, health care, and education for children living with HIV/AIDS.

Today, she envisions a ministry to women and children of the DRC. She dreams of building a path out of the poverty and hopelessness her eyes have seen.

To read the rest of this article, follow this link to SheLovesMagazine or if the link doesn’t work, cut and paste http://shelovesmagazine.com/2016/hair-on-fire/

Image FIRE by Louish Pixel – Flickr.com