Status Updates From The New Recruit (The Missio...

Pasha was saying, “I want to go home, but do not want to face Father. I do not like being wrong.”
I could totally relate. “Yeah, me neither.”
“How are you wrong?”
Spencer goes on the tell Pasha that he was wrong about the whole God thing. Today I watched Sadie Robertson who talked with Luke and Joel Smallbone. And they talked about the song Relate. Spencer’s experience can relate and help Pasha.

Somehow she loved God despite what had been done to her. She was beautiful, and I was ugly. Not physically, maybe, although I never did care for my neon hair and freckles. But I was ugly in my heart with my negativity, anger, jealousy, hate. I could go on and on, but it was too depressing.
God? are You listening? I’m sorry I’m so mad, but I don’t get why I have these dreams.

…Because horrible men had hurt Svetlana. Pasha had hurt Tatyana, Lena, Ivan, and the field office. My dad had hurt my mother and me.
“Your heart must not burn,” Svetlana had signed to me that day in the kitchen. “Pray, and God will melt your anger with his love.”……….
How could Svetlana, a deaf girl, homeless and hungry, a victim of rape who’d kept her baby-how could she be happy? I didn’t get it..

The song finally ended, and Gabe called Jensina, Arianna, and Svetlana onstage to sing a song that Svetlana had written. The deaf girl stood beside Gabe, signing the words as he sang. Tears streamed down her face, yet she smiled as she mouthed the words. A fury melted through me from anger buried deep inside that had resurfaced first at Kimbal’s confession about my dad, then, with Pasha’s betrayal, but why now?..

…I really liked Gabe, but I could never compete against someone like him. The dude was a saint. He even talked Svetlana into helping with a special song, though I had no clue how a deaf girl would sing.

I wonder how much does the author know about Deaf culture. I’m curious to see if Svetlana will actually sing or not.

Interesting how the author writes about the deaf girl, Svetlana. She had a rough childhood, she’s sixteen now I think. Her mother died when she was 9, Svetlana was raped and beaten. But, she doesn’t hold grudges

The topic switched to Gabe and Isabel’s worship service scheduled for the next evening. Everyone was looking forward to it but me. It was just another opportunity for Gabe and Isabel to shine together.

We rode in silence for several stops before Gabe spoke again. “Look, you never said what happened, but God didn’t make your dad do what he did. For whatever reason, your dad made that choice. God knows it hurts you, though, and He knows your pain will help you relate to Pasha. Suffering makes us stronger, and pain teaches us, if we let it. So…you should be way smarter than me.” Gabe did an awkward laugh.

…I’m just saying-and I could be totally off-base-but what if God wants you to use that experience to help you connect to Pasha in a way I can’t.”
That was crazy talk. “You think God let my dad betray my mom and leave me without a father or real family so thirteen years later I could tell some Russian gang kid I know how he feels?”
Gabe s longed out a wrinkle on his polo shirt. “Maybe. Sort of.”…

Gabe shifted in his seat. “Take Pasha. I feel bad for him because I know he’s hurt. I tried to help, but I couldn’t. Coming from me it’s just another goody-goody Christian trying to boss him, telling him to obey God and his parents. But from you it would be different.”
I stared, slack-jawed. “Are you kidding me?” Where was Gabe going with this?
“Your dad left or whatever, which was horrible…

Spencer was talking. “Why do people hurt their family?”
Gabe looked up, his expression blank.
“You’re supposed to love your family. Look out for them. Why does God let this stuff happen?”
“God doesn’t force people to be nice. I think He hopes we can take the bad things in life and use them to help others.”
Help others with bad things? “I don’t get it.”

…Truly serve God, you must sacrifice your agenda for His. Love people, give to them, pray for them, but remember, it’s God’s will be done, not yours.” Tears ran down Adrianna’ cheeks, and she wiped them away. “Can we pray right now?”

…Arianna looked around the room with big puppy-dog eyes. “I guess I see what you’re saying. We shouldn’t force them to come to the center…because God does ‘t want us to control others.”
“Exactly.” Mr. S said.
“But my word for the year is ‘service.’ How can I serve those people?” Adrianna asked.
“‘It is a very difficult job, being the servant of two masters.’” Mr. S said…

“Arianna,” Mr. S said, “the fact that your heart breaks for the lost is evidence of great love and mercy. But please understand that God doesn’t force people to love Him. Some choose not to. You can share the gospel and love others, but you can’t decide for anyone.” “He’s wasting his time,” I whispered to Gabe. “She’ll never grasp that concept.”…

Svetlana is Deaf.
Svetlana’s hands moved fast and stopped, crossed over her chest. Jensina giggled and signed back to Svetlana. Then both girls looked to me. “She said, ‘Your hair is fire…Your heart must not burn. Pray, and God will melt your anger with His love,’ Aww.” She signed to Svetlana. “That was beautiful.” . . . Everybody wanted me to pray.

Beth put her hand in my shoulder and squeezed. “Nothing bad happens that God can’t use for good. That’s in Romans- part of the Bible. So if you think the bad stuff’s from Him ‘cause He’s a big jerk who wants to torture you and make you suffer, you’re wrong. And you’re too sharp to be falling for that lie.”

…”He made her. She belongs to Him, not me. Besides, what would I have to say to you if she were alive? Me, raised by my dad and three brothers? I’d be a different person if Mom had lived, playing with dolls and getting manicures. That’s how God works. Our pain can help others.”
Beth has a real positive way of looking at things, one of those glass half full people, the kind I used to hate. But not Beth.

Spencer: “But God could’ve saved your mom, kept that car accident from happening. How can you be okay with that?”
“God made the world. He made me.” She plucked a strawberry off my tray. “Look at this thing, Tiger, all these little seeds. It’s so amazing. I don’t have a clue to what God’s up to. I can’t made a strawberry. If God wants my mom in heaven, who am I to say no?…