Handcrafted Answer to a Prayer

When did I first start praying for this young woman?  I do not remember.  Long before I was introduced to Uka, I knew I would need to meet her.  I would need her friendship and camaraderie.  I would cherish her insight into her culture.  I would learn from her as I passed along my own experiences.  And together we would birth a bilingual kids ministry.

Because that is not something you should try doing solo.

When did I start to ask God for a person to fill this role?  It must be about two years ago...

God is funny and mysterious.  He lives outside of time.  So He had been working on an answer to my new prayer for over two decades.

Meet Uka.

Uka!

"I was praying, and think we need to communicate with our children's parents about what we are doing in class so they can talk about it at home," Uka mentioned to me as we got together to pray for our Antioch Mongolia's kids.  Seriously, I had the same idea two weeks ago, chica.  But got overwhelmed with the idea of how to do it in our bilingual setting.

This scenario is recurrent with the two of us.  God drops His ideas into both of our heads.  And where I hit the 'but how do we do that in Mongolia?!?' wall, Uka has an idea of how to get us there.

I'm not telling you much about the inside of this fascinating, faithful woman of God, yet.  I'm looking for words.  Genuine.  Sold out.  Child-hearted.  Wise.  Quirky.  Creative.  Humble.  Talented.  Multifaceted.  Beautiful.

Uka moments after her baptism - summer 2013

I wish you could see her for a Sunday with our children.  There is a genuine smile of joy blazing from her eyes as much as between her cheeks.  When anyone talks to her, from the littlest to the oldest, they have her full attention - she is down at their level, listening with her ears and her eyes, actively loving.  When she translates she matches my energy, like a harmony being sung by my side, and fills in the gaps that my cultural bent creates.  When she prays, she is in her Daddy's lap and demonstrates invitingly how close anyone can be to Abba.

Dance party at kids' church!  Uka is the tall 'kid' in back.

This is the one God prepared as an answer to my prayer of two years ago.  This is Uka.

pause - insight into my life

You might say I'm a bit of a control freak.  A perfectionist.  Hmm.  Many have said the latter.  I know I am also the former.

Giving over a project, a plan, a class, a lesson.  Knowingly or subconsciously, I grip my little kingdom. I do not like to let go.  I do not share well.  

I need to grow here.

A lot.

But I trust Uka.  Entirely.  With kids, with teaching, with translation.  Easily.  Freely.  Joyfully!

And in January I had the joy of sitting in the nest and watching this young woman take her first flight.  She ran our children's department for two weeks while I was away for a conference in Thailand.  The photos and stories she sent while I was away made my heart sing.

You should know something else about Uka.  She doesn't have my control-freak hang-ups.  As soon as she was released to lead she immediately set others among our volunteers, and even our kids, free to fly in their own ways.

I'm glad I am only planting this sapling.  If I were to hold onto it, I'd limit its root space out of fear of it not growing 'just right'.  Uka will free this ministry to grow into much more than I could.

Uka on right - faithfully translating for me.

Reminds me of a song I listened to again today.

"What you have done, others will do,

bigger and better and faster than you,"

(Rick Pino's "Pioneer")

I do not mind that.  At all.  Uka and others will grow this children’s ministry and release it to flourish.  I am just happy to fulfill another line of the same song.

"But the Father in heaven, He is glad you can go,

For those who come after you will need the road."

Uka teaching our kids

It turns out that I was not the only one praying about this ministry to children long ahead of its birth.  Uka let me know months after she joined me that she had asked God to give her an opportunity to learn how to minister to children.  When she discovered what we were planning for the children of this then church-to-be, she knew that she wanted to be a part.  But she wasn't sure if I would want her help.

Oh, girl.  If she hadn't jumped in.  Oh.  I'm glad I do not have to think about what that would have looked like.

I am thankful, instead, that this will be beautiful.  And that Uka’s prayers were answered along with mine.

The beauty of answered prayers.