I’ve always known God gives more than what we could even humanly fathom. I follow a blog that is called ‘God Size Dream’ and that is exactly what we should all strive to live for – accepting and finding the grace to feel worthy enough to receive HIS dream for us.
Two days ago I blogged about my request to find another survivor to offer one more aspect to the “I Have a Voice” Video Campaign and then the next day I was blessed to be able to blog how God answered the request and put in my path Nicole, one of His beloved.
Today I was not expecting to receive yet another answer! His grace overflows. 🙂 I was at Papa’s Ice House in Spring, TX supporting my friend, and fellow survivor, Cheryl with her ministry “My Daughter’s House” which is the name of the safe house for Mission at Serenity Ranch (the refuge for victims of the sex slave trade). We support one another’s ministries and go to one another’s fund raisers. They were having a Car Show benefitting Mission at Serenity Ranch and I set up a booth among the vendors of Scentsy, Mary Kay and others and knew if anything I would at least get the word out to someone if I didn’t sell anything. Ryan joined me for the first part of the day and was a volunteer for Cheryl and her group helping with the Car Smash.
While I was sitting and watching the people take their aggression out on the car a young man came up to the table and was looking at the charms. He then saw my poster, looked at me, then back at the poster and said “That’s you!”. 😉
I laughed, “Yes, that’s me.”
“I was reading the back of your book when you weren’t here a bit ago. It is amazing that you are so open about your story. And I love what this charm means.”
“Thank you,” I said. Before I could get anything else out he said, “I’m a survivor too. Stuff as a kid, then really bad stuff when I was older, I was deep into drugs too and then one day I saw God face to face and my life changed.”
That was a lot to put in one sentence yet he did. I looked at him with understanding and encouraged him, “I believe you,” I said “Tell me about it.”
So he did. He told me about how he was beaten as a child by his parents but he never really understood at the time that no one else was being treated the way they were. Later as a teen he was a model in New York (he is from the New Jersey area) and during that time things would be done to him while he was in an intoxicated state, or he’d be slipped something and he’d wake up and be in a situation he didn’t want to be in. This led to deeper drug use to block out everything that was being done. Then one day he was in an accident and died…then, from what he recalls, he came back and that was when he ‘saw God’. He didn’t know that he had been in a coma for months in that time period.
To him it was all one time frame. When he was well again he began to have this desire to draw the face of God, “Or it could have been the face of the Holy Spirit,” he later said. “All I know is that it was God and he said to me, ‘Jacob, you’ve been asking me to show myself to you so here I am.’ but I didn’t believe it and then he said, ‘Jacob look’ and he was everywhere. Literally everywhere. And then he was in me.” He said his life changed from that moment forward. He got clean, went to school and got his BS in Psychology and came to Texas at the urging of God’s direction. He said he knows he wants to become a counselor and help others like him one day.
There is much more to his amazing story which is why when he said, “How can I be a part of your ministry. I want to help. I want to speak out too and help others to speak out.” That is when I realized he would be great for the Video campaign too, and another male voice which is great! I discussed this with him and he is on board too! Yeah! 😀
We will probably film them in August and have them as a continuation of the campaign. I’m still in awe of God’s abundance in his giving, love and grace.
Open your heart to the possibilities of how generous God wants to be to you today. Pray to find the grace to feel worthy of the abundance of love he desires to give you.
Blessings
Shannon