Sometimes God calls us to places we don’t expect. He asks us to trust Him and have faith to serve in the Kingdom. The serving is always for the Lord, but He has ways of working in our own hearts as much as He works in the hearts of those we are ministering to.
After completing our mission of rescuing street children in Uganda during 2017, we were back in the states looking for opportunities to serve. Cookson Hills Christian Ministries came up in our search. The reason we accepted the opportunity to serve here at Cookson Hills is simple…
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 NIV
We are passionate about what God is passionate about. It is our job as His followers to take care of the orphans and widows. We must help take care of the next generation. We have such an amazing privilege to enter a small span of their lives, in their youth, to infuse Christ’s transforming love, in order to end the cycle of destruction the enemy began in their earlier years of life. In other words, reverse the curse which began back in the Garden of Eden and plant seeds for new hope and a journey in the Kingdom of God. The hope is that one day the seed of Christ that has been sown will bring forth a harvest that impacts generations to come.
Since beginning as Cookson Hills houseparents this past February, God has been using us in big ways in the lives of the students in our home. We try to be intentional in helping our students. We want to plant seeds for healing as we’ve been commanded by scripture. Our first answer to this is through prayer. We have to immerse ourselves in the Word, prayer, and fasting so that we may fight the spiritual battles we face. Parenting is spiritual warfare and if we don’t stand in the gap, who will? As a family, we do Bible devotions in our home that are centered on Christ as the ultimate healer and mender of the broken; we lead our students in prayer and worship and we strive to correct with scripture. We want our children to begin to develop a sensitive heart to the Holy Spirit’s convictions. Lastly, every week we have a theme, such as kindness or forgiveness in our home that continually feeds their souls and helps them overcome struggles they may be having.
God continually breaks the chains that cause the brokenness in our children. One of our students has struggled for many months with anger. This would manifest in broken things, unkind words, and unkind actions. Through love, discipline, prayer and digging into what Jesus teaches us in scripture that child no longer carries out those moments of extreme anger. Their heart has begun to transform through the love of Christ and the love in our home.
When we said “yes” to coming to Cookson Hills we stepped out in faith trusting God’s calling in our life, believing the Bible’s teaching on faith in action (James 2:14 & 17). Is it difficult? Of course! But there is no greater joy, aside from our salvation, than that of being a living sacrifice unto the Lord, jointly crucified with Christ and walking in the fullness of God. We have to completely surrender, step out in faith and be fully dependent on His guidance every single day. He shows us how to walk through the pain and look to Him for transformative healing.