Favourite places...

This is me... with Mb'hati... in Kigali, Rwanda.

I wonder if I'd recognize her today. It's been two long years since I've had my feet on that red soil.

She was very ill the day we visited this Women's Association. We had some supplies and we prayed with her. I remember that moment especially. It's emblazoned in me.

Beautiful girl, being raised in a country that has seen more pain, more bloodshed than I can comprehend.

In this particular moment I was glad to be holding a little one, someone too young to remember the pain of those days in 1994, or even currently with the poverty that continues. She as yet didn't know much about the wars, or her history. She was just playing with my glasses and happy to 'talk' with a visitor. Expressing love freely...even through her feeble body. She, her mother, and her friends captured my heart.

The moms here also captured my heart. There is something that changes in the eyes of a person who experiences deep pain or loss. I saw that in the eyes of so many... those who survived, those who came back after....those who are still in far away countries as the relay their stories about loved ones who died too soon.

But, especially in this place, there are some precious saints that know deep sadness but who also carry with them the fragrance of the Holy Spirit. I feel so blessed each time I meet someone like that. Even when common language seems so hard to find, their eyes tell the story of the loving and Holy God who indwells them. Just as with deep sorrow, there is equally something unique in the eyes of those who have an intimate relationship with Jesus.

I don't always see that in the eyes of those I meet. But I look for it. When I noticed it, I rejoice. When I don't, I pray that Jesus will change my own eyes, so that I may recognize Him even better... (Mat. 25:40).