Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!

Living in a culture where showing emotions, especially tears and sadness is not allowed can be very difficult. However, in those moments when God allows me to come alongside of my Gambian friends in their secret tears He is doing a mighty work.

This morning when I had a very different plan God allowed me another opportunity to come alongside of a Gambian friend in her grief. She had been in my home for several hours and I mentioned that it had been a while, she replied “you have knowledge, my heart is sad”. A close family member had died about a month ago and today she received a call that they were doing a family prayer time for him. In this religion, they work very hard to pray their family into heaven after they die. As she thought of this family member her heart was saddened and she was crying in secret. She knew she could not leave my house until she had stopped crying and was a little less sad so she stayed in my home which is always a safe place for tears. God clearly wanted me to talk to her so He kept her here.

As she shared her sadness and her tears I prayed with her and shared about this painful, sin filled and hard world we live in. I then was able to share with her about the gift of hope, peace and eternal life that only comes to those who choose to take the road that follows Jesus. God gave me the words in Wolof and the opportunity to share and she listened. She also has the gospel teachings on an SD card in her phone to listen to them and I encouraged her to do so. This was also an answer to prayer, as just 48 hours earlier I was beating myself up about not having done a good job sharing with her the living hope of Jesus. So, when He flung open this door and gave me this opportunity I jumped in. AND He kept others away from my house until 1 minute after we finished our conversation, all God! Pray for MS and I pray for you that He may open doors for you to share His love to others in their times of sorrow and tears.