The church who hosted the children's ministry retreat we helped with this past weekend is the same church where Genevieve shared the story of David and Goliath in Spanish in front of the who church back in April. If you missed that, you can view the video here.
At the end of the video she says, "No importa si es pequeño porque Dios es grande y nos ayuda." This translates to, "It doesn't matter if you are small because God is big and He helps us." The children's ministry leader was there that morning and heard that mini sermon. She said that she felt like God used that to come up with the motto for the retreat this year, which was, "Soy pequeño pero camino con Jesús." In English this says, "I am small but I walk with Jesus."
Knowing that God used our little 4 year old MK (missionary kid) to speak into the heart of a leader showed/reminded me of something important: a missionary kid is not necessarily simply a kid of a missionary but a missionary who is a kid. When God called our family to Costa Rica, He had Genevieve and Jonah in mind too. They are such a blessing, generally bringing a smile to people's faces but in this case, God used her through her words when she shared. We are so proud of her and humbled by her all at the same time.
During a special prayer time at the church on the night before the retreat, God really impressed Genevieve on my heart. It struck me that she had such an opportunity to participate as one of the kids. As much as she is a missionary kid, during this retreat she was allowed to just be one of the kids. She was going to be ministered to in the same way the rest of the kids were. The last time she was at this church she shared as a missionary. This time she participated as a kid.
Polly and I were praying that God would do a work in her heart and life this past weekend. We prayed that she would have a genuine encounter with God and be anointed/empowered by the Holy Spirit.
We don't know how much impact the weekend had on her. We know that she listened to at least some of it and that she prayed and that she was prayed over. I believe it was a positive experience for her. We are so grateful that this church thought of her and invited her to be a kid who got to participate.
Genevieve is growing up so fast. The fact that she was comfortable leaving us (even though we were at the same campground) and staying with her group and even sleeping in a room with her friends reminded us how big she's getting. She's not a little baby anymore. We loved watching her having fun and making new friends. We loved watching her take little steps of independence which will serve her well in the future...a LONG, LONG time from now.
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