The Apostle D.

Remember D., affectionately dubbed the Apostle D. by my friend Sweeney? As a quick recap, she is the mysterious 17 year old who has been shining the light of God ALL OVER the group home since she arrived about 2 weeks ago.

After I wrote last week, I learned a little more about her back story. I won't go into all of it here, but I was pleased to learn that this young lady is very plugged into a church community and has a fantastic team of adults prayerfully supporting and advocating for her.

Last Friday I stopped by the Home to meet her. We had a somewhat tearful chat about how hard it was for her to be in the Home without her siblings. The President of the Home, another employee and I reassured her that God was using her in a mighty way as salt and light in a difficult place. She admitted through tears that she was really beginning to see that. D. also mentioned that she wanted to be a missionary one day. We all assured her that her 'one day' was now.

Tonight when I arrived at the Home, D. was there. As I was getting the playroom set up for our time D. stepped out. She returned with 3 girls who have never attended our Monday night group before, despite weekly invitations from me.

Our lesson was a very powerful Nooma video about forgiveness called Baggage. The girls were incredibly engaged. It was an awesome time. One of the girls, S., mentioned that she was reading her Bible now because of D. Another resident that I am close to--and have been very, very worried about-- was there. Her mood was the most joyful and spunky I have witnessed in months. As I was saying goodbye, I asked her what had changed.
"D.and I have been talking a lot."

1 Timothy 4:12 (New International Version)
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

I couldn't help but smile as I drove home. I just LOVE the way God works. He is humbling me. He is using a girl who has experienced some terrible things to reach other troubled girls. He is redeeming D.'s story of earthly pain for eternal glory.

According to the world's economy I am strong and D is weak...but God doesn't work the way we do.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (The Message)
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ."