Love Rescue

A couple of weeks ago, we were able to spend time with a family from the States who were here to take their new daughter home after a long adoption process.  The daughter they take is very close to our hearts as she was the first Ethiopian girl to befriend our daughters.  Fluent in English, very hospitable, beautiful in nature and appearance, Lidiya opened her heart to our daughters, to us and thereby opened our hearts to her.

For the first time that week , I heard the story of Lidiya from her mom and her social worker.  This is the short/gap filled version of her story…but sufficient enough for you to get the picture.   Both of Lidiya’s parents died (her father first, then her mother) and she was left with her mother’s sister who took her under her care.  This aunty had a baby of her own, a beautiful girl we know as Haben.  Haben and Lidiya were like sisters but when Haben turned two, her mother left them both with her 13 year old sister Zenash while she went to live in Addis Ababa.  Abandoned and afraid, the three girls were left to fend for themselves in their little mud clad room in one of the darkest streets in Debre Zeit.  There were many nights where Zenash had nothing to feed the girls so she would give them water and tell them that this was their dinner. 

It just broke my heart to hear their story.  Zenash was in a place of desperation, as she did not have the capacity to look after these two babies.  The desperation got so bad that one day when some men came and offered Zenash some money to take Lidiya from her, she took the money and Lidiya went into a house that could have led to other places, if not for the intervention of the social worker and director from BCI who rescued her from their dirty hands. 

Somewhere along the way, BCI were able to take them into their programme and Lidiya came into contact with a short term missionary, whose name was Beth Trexel.  She asked Beth to take her home, to put her into her suitcase or find another way for her to go with her to America.  Lidiya cried out in desperation to her God, that He would rescue her from the life that seemingly was not the life of freedom she knew God wanted to give her.

God heard her cry.  God hears the cry of the broken and He rescues.  I was reminded of this yesterday as we said goodbye to Lidiya and prayed for God to use her in this new country she would call home. 

The Israelites were in the same position of desperation and they called out to God to rescue them:

Exo 2:23-25 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for RESCUE from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel--and GOD KNEW.

So God pulled aside Moses and showed him what He would do:

Exo 3:7-10  Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will SEND YOU to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

God uses PEOPLE –simple, plain people – even people who have made mistakes and who seem ill-equipped- to be rescuers. 

God is using the Trexel family to be that Love Rescue for Lidiya.  He wants to use so many more people to be Love Rescuers for Him.  There are so many people crying out to God to be rescued from their desperate situation.  He is calling people aside to be vessels of His Love because He sees and He knows their situation.  Unfortunately because of our limited abilities, we don’t know the whole situation so we don’t always feel like we necessarily need to or can be the rescuer.  But that is where faith and obedience comes into play.  If God says Go, we need to Go in faith that He will be there along the way. 

I love that God rescues.  He rescued me. 

“The rescued are often the best rescuers” – Israel Houghton.  Has God rescued you?  He will use you to rescue others.