Jill

Yesterday morning, I walked into EC 288 at church. A woman who was a little older in her years stood, smiling, welcoming us to class. This woman’s name is Jill.
 
A few days before, I was invited to attend this two-day seminar. It’s called Kidzana – about being able to come up with lessons for children’s ministries in America and all over the world. We were also supposed to learn how to teach people in other countries who want to do children’s ministry how to do it with limited resources and such.
 
Little did I know what was to come from this experience.
 
I learned about cultures, different children’s ministries, more about the people in my church, heard from a woman who has been to the Dominican, and listened as amazing women and mothers were surrounding us (my few friends that are going on mission trips this summer). These women were generally concerned about us and didn’t even know us. That is the love of Christ showing through. I watched as one woman wrote as we talked about our trips, saying under her breath “we need to pray over this”. I felt so loved!

If this wasn’t enough, the highlight was when Jill, the teacher/leader, decided that she needed to pray blessings over us. She said that in the old Jewish times, blessings were given eyeball to eyeball, hand to hand. Unsure of what was about to happen, I watched closely.
 
Jill started with one of my friends, Morgan. Jill grabbed Morgan’s hands in her and began praying with power and authority. Her eyes welled with tears for Morgan, and in turn Morgan’s eyes welled, too.
 
When Jill came to me, I was a mix of smiling and nearly crying. I could feel God’s heart in my very being. When her eyes looked into mine, I could feel that God was looking at my soul and that she was looking at my heart.
 
She thanked God that she could see innocence in me. Immediately, I broke out in smile. How often had I been innocent in the last years of high school – too many times to count. At that moment, I realized that was all for God’s glory!
 
She asked God that I would have boldness. If you know me very well, you know that God has been revealing things to me about feet. Did you know that you can use feet to go and boldly preach the Gospel!?! In that moment, He reaffirmed that this is what I was supposed to be doing.
 
She went to everyone in the room and near tears came from every single person. This woman’s passion for the Lord was incredible.
 
It was like God was telling her things that He had been telling me. The thing is that Jill didn’t know me. But my God does! So He told her about me and what she needed to pray over me. God blessed me today in a very unexpected way. I hope He does the same for you.