“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19.

I love the fact that God supplies for all our needs.  Even before we know we need something, He is there, readily supplying.  What I love even more, and what sometimes makes me laugh with joy, is how He goes about supplying those needs.  He uses people and circumstances we wouldn’t have ever guessed to bring just what we need.  He even uses our own frailties, weaknesses, and shortcomings.

I remember the first week I was living here in Juarez, over a month and a half ago now, just starting my internship with IFM and wondering what the Lord was going to do in and through me while I was here.  I must admit those first few days especially I was stir-crazy.  I was so used to my life in Colorado with my own little apartment, going for a walk with my dog after a day of teaching, or attending some activity at my church.  My schedule was just how I wanted it.  Here, though, things are different.  Because of safety, I can’t just come and go anywhere in Juarez as I please.  The people here God has put in authority over me have shown their care and concern from the very beginning.  When one of the directors of the school saw I was itching to get out and do my own thing, he made sure I wasn’t alone.  He recruited the help of our guard’s two daughters.  They would be my walking buddies.  Great!  Maybe new friends who could show me around.  I was grateful.  Though when I met them, I was a little confused—I was expecting some new friends a little older—but God provided two sweet girls—Dalia, twelve years old, and Micki, eleven.  Perhaps the roles would be a little different than I had first thought, but their presence was definitely a provision from the Lord.

Dalia and Micki don’t speak any English, though they are eager to learn.  After seeing friends and family members follow the cycle of dropping out of school at 12 or 13 years old, and beginning to have children as young as 15 and 16, Dalia and Micki stand out.  They want more than the norm of this community, and they know that continuing in their education is the only way to ensure that they will have it.  They also stand out because they love the Lord and openly proclaim it.  In this colonia, it is rare indeed to find many people who want to walk with Jesus and talk about Jesus and proclaim themselves Christians.  Yet Dalia and Micki do, and these were the things we found ourselves talking about during our walks. 

It was around this time that the Lord started laying on my heart the idea for having a girls’ get together evening at my apartment.  I just ache for the girls in this colonia to know Jesus and to find their worth in Him alone.  I was telling Maria, the director of the school about this dream, and she said, “Why don’t you tell Dalia and Micki about it?  Maybe they could help you.”  Can you believe it didn’t occur to me until then?  God had been connecting it the whole time, but I saw all these events as disconnected until He used a sister in Christ to bring the point home.  I’m sure glad He’s patient with me!

So I mentioned the idea to Dalia and Micki on one of our walks.  They said it sounded like a great idea—having a night of girls hanging out in the name of Jesus—talking and singing.  Even just watching movies and eating snacks.  Whatever would get the girls off the streets at night and involved in fellowship with people who love the Lord.  I left it at that and put it on the shelf as a “somewhere down the road” event.  You know, when it fit my precious schedule.

But a few days later Dalia and Micki showed up.  “So when are we going to start that girls’ night thing?”  they asked.  Hmmm.   I sure like these girls, I thought.  They were right.  Why wait?  “How about tomorrow?”  I replied.

So the next evening was our first girls’ night.  It was Dalia and Mickia and one of Dalia’s friends, who is not a Christian.  It was so much fun—we talked, we goofed around, we sang to Jesus, we ate cookies.  They only asked that the next week we start earlier so we could have more time.  We’ve had one other girls’ night and it was equally enjoyable, and we got to talk in even more depth.  I don’t know how the Lord will direct us from here, or how many girls He will choose to draw into this fellowship.  All I know is He directed it from the beginning.

It amazes me to look back on this one seemingly small thing that truly means something in the Kingdom, and know it all started with my own shortcomings.  I was restless and impatient and not content to sit still in my little apartment in the evenings.  I thought these two girls were just going to be a way for me to have some exposure to the rest of this community.  Already God has used them as so much more.  He’s used them to help supply my need to minister to young women and girls, and He’s used me to encourage and mentor them.  We didn’t even know we would need one another; yet we were supplied with each other “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Amen!