Because that is not something you should try doing solo.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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,"
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."
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| 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.
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| The beauty of answered prayers. |
