An Unfair Trade

Yesterday, we did a Beauty for Ashes event with women from four different villages.

Beauty for Ashes is a women’s ministry that works to share God’s restoration, hope and healing. When women have personal pain that involves shame, we tend to keep it to ourselves leaving us feel alone. During Beauty for Ashes, we hope to create a safe environment so women can be set free, healed, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak. To learn more information about it, click here: www.adventures.org/beautyforashes

We had 30 women accept the invitation to our event. These same women are women who have received a proclaimer that reads their bible audibly to them as they cannot read or write. To effectively impact and challenge these women, our activities were drawing activities.

Joana, my teammate, is one of our squad’s Beauty for Ashes Coordinators. She spoke Spanish to the women and our sweet friend Margarita translated into their language of Pokomchi. When others like myself spoke English, we were getting translated twice! Praise God that He speaks all languages.

Our emphasis for these women was community. Together we had worship, communion, prayer, and conversation. Towards the end of the event, we gave each woman a small bag of ashes that represented any pain they were holding on to. One by one, women came to the alter to lay down their ashes and were given a beautiful flower in return. This is exactly how God’s live is, right? We don’t deserve it, but He gives it freely to us. We don’t have something equally good to give to Him, but He gives it anyways. That seems like such an unfair trade but that is the reason Jesus died on the cross- for you!

While the entire Beauty for Ashes event was blessed and successful, there was one women who impacted me heavily. The night prior to our event, I wrote the names of the four villages on paper and we spent time praying over each one. On one village specifically God told me to write, “There will be a women who has/had very sick children. They may come with her or they may not come.” I wrote it down, still doubtful if God told me that or if it was my own thoughts.

We began the event with prayer and an icebreaker. I’ve noticed that the women here are typically shy so they needed a little push to do the ‘get to know you activity’. I sat down at a table with a table of women who half spoke Spanish and half spoke Pokomchi. With google translate in hand and the Spanish I have acquired, we worked together to share our names, favorite colors, about our family, and where we are from.

After that, we moved into a time of drawing. Their task was to draw a moment when they felt close to God. I sat back down at the same table and began to draw with them. With some encouragement, some of the women were vulnerable and shared. I understood some of the stories but probably missed a few important details. The woman across from me shared last and I continued to nod my head, smiled, and thanked her for sharing even though I truly did not understand hers at all. The table got quiet, my heart sank and then the Holy Spirit told me that I needed to know her story- every detail. I called Joana over (luckily, this woman spoke Spanish) and asked her if she could translate this woman’s story for me. The woman graciously told it again.

She told us that her picture is of her two children who were severely sick being miraculously healed and saved by God. I looked at Joana and we both started crying. This woman was probably confused so I immediately told her that God had me pray for her last night before I even knew her. I had prayed that she was supposed to come and we needed to continue to pray for her.

Immediately following that, I remembered that I was supposed to go up front and share my photo with the whole room. I had already felt emotional but I knew that it would help the other women feel comfortable sharing so I did. After me, there was some awkward silence and hesitation for volunteers. I whispered to Joana, “I want the woman in green to share.” Within seconds, she got up from her chair and shared her story into the microphone.

After our event, she sought prayer from us for her mother who is getting open heart surgery and needs God’s hands on her. I wanted to take her pain and her tears. I was reminded of what our focus of the day was though- community. There is so much freedom when we bring something that was once kept in the dark to the light. I encourage you too, to pray and see if God is revealing something that you need to release.

 Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Our Beauty for Ashes event was so fruitful. We are hoping to do it in two more villages before our time in Guatemala comes to an end.

Thank you Lord for the thirty women who came to the event. Thank you for their vulnerability and growing confidence to seek you in their lives. Continue to encourage them to lean deeper into establishing community and laying their burdens at your feet. I specifically want to pray over the woman who spoke bravely about her troubles. Bless the hands that are caring for her mother. Amen. 

Be well. Love well.

Mags