O Daughters of Zion

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be sharing what I'm about to share with you.

This is something that I used to lie about in college and I was even made to feel ashamed of. Back then, I wanted to fit in, to go out with my friends, and to just be loved by someone...

Yet even before I was intimately walking with the Lord, He placed His hand of protection over me, for He knew the plans He had for me.

I was recently asked if we provide contraceptives or teach about safe-sex because "the teens are going to have sex anyways."

That hit me hard, right in the gut.

I knew I had to share my testimony.  I also knew it would rub some people the wrong way, but I'm not ashamed of the gospel nor of the convictions God has placed on my life.  God has called His children the "light of the world" who are not to be placed under a basket, but on a stand to shine before others so that they may see and give glory to the Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:15-16)

So here it goes...

I'm waiting till marriage.

Yes, you heard right, I'm a 27 year old virgin.

I credit God for my singleness as everything in me knows why He hasn't brought my husband to me yet.  He's placed in me a heart to wait on Him and to minister to young girls and women how He desires them above all things.  He has anointed me and set me aside for such a time as this, and though I long terribly for my husband, I will wait all eternity on Him.

The Lord has brought me to a country where men buy women for a night who are desperate to make enough money to feed their children and where girls as young as 11 and 12 years old are becoming pregnant. I heard that it's even a right of passage for young girls to have sex once they have their first period.  It becomes a competition among the youth of who can lose their virginity first... where did this even come from?

Sure, it would be an easy fix to hand out condoms and encourage kids to practice safe-sex, but it would be better for me to have a great millstone fastened around my neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea than causing one of these little ones who believe in Him to sin (Matthew 18:6).  I know sex out of marriage is not God's perfect plan for them.  I can't fix what is already done, but I can encourage these young girls now to pursue the Lord and wait for the man God has for them.

I can hear Jesus calling to each little girl,

"I adjure you, O daughters of [Zion], by the gazelles or the does of their field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases." (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5)  

Each one is a precious princess of the Most High King, adorned with pearls and given a holy gift that is not to be thrown at the feet of pigs or given to the dogs (Matthew 7:6).

Sweet Christina (9), one of many girls from Zion who will be in the girls program

Right now the community just knows that I'm single and living alone.  That in itself is an oddity.  But next week, the first week of classes, I'm going to share with each group of girls my decision to wait.  I guarantee you there will be stunned disbelief as such a choice is unheard of here.  (Let's face it, I'm older than many of the mothers in Zion, and according to society, I should have a 12 year old child by now.)

  Our first theme for the class?  "Choices."  How appropriate! At the end of the first 6 weeks, the girls will be given the opportunity to choose to accept Jesus as their Savior.  Please join me in praying that God would give me the authority to speak into the girls lives, that He would capture each one of their hearts for His glory, and that their hearts and minds would begin to be transformed and renewed in their Father's love.

I can't wait to share what we're naming the program, but you'll just have to wait for the next blog on that one! You'll feel the Spirit rush chills all over you.