More of day four in Israel
"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him". John 9:1-3
There are problems we go through in life, that at first we may think we have sinned and caused it to happen. But this is not always the case. God allows us to go through certain situations so we can have an experience with Him and at the end of it glorify His name with our testimony. I believe God’s power is best at work in times of weakness and through difficult moments. We are also best equipped to help people when we have faced trials and overcome them. When helping people, we will not pass on knowledge to them but life and spirit, because we know what it is like to go through a hard moment and we also know how to overcome it.
I remember when I was a leader in Victory Youth Group (VYG) a few years back and I was kicked out of my mother’s house. I was homeless and placed in a youth hostel where I lived for 7 months. At that time it seemed like the worst time of my life and a great shame for me as I was at law school, living in a hostel with ex-prisoners, drug addicts, gang members and young people who were not doing anything with their lives, apart from smoking weed every day. It was not nice to begin with but within time (when I got over myself) I started to understand young people in a different way. I really saw how lost these youth were and for some of them, that was the only lifestyle they knew. Through this experience I learned a lot about myself and about other people. It even toughened me up and caused me to depend on God. I was able to even practice what Iwould teach the youths in my tribe. I remember there was a guy who seemed to be popular in the hostel. He was a show off and in front of people, he invited me to his room one night. The girls were egging me on to go but I did not go because I feared God more than him. The next morning, he was so embarrassed he suggested in front of everyone that I must be a lesbian because I rejected him. He laughed at me and so did many others but I did not care because I was not about to follow the crowd nor deny my faith for anyone or anything.
As I was different from the others and started to befriend some of them, I was able to introduce them to the youth group. I look back and I see God had placed me there for me to learn and grow and also bring people to him. He even used me to bring one of the support workers and her friend to the church. Had I not gone through this, I would still be dependent on my mother, immature as a person and narrow minded when it comes to young people and the issues they face. Since then, I have been able to help youth who are going through what I went through and I even worked as a Youth Support Worker for a while and volunteered as a Housing Advisor to give to others what I had learned and gained through my personal experience.
To be continued
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