When God Asks You To Give Away Your Favourite Necklace!

Indonesia is beautiful.

The land is beautiful.

The people are beautiful.

And I am in love with their culture and life style. You could say that Indonesia has captured my heart.

But the thing that has really grabbed a hold of my heart are the girls! Yep, it doesn’t matter where in the world I am, it’s the girls that tug hardest at my heart strings, and Indonesia is no different.

I have had the privilege of spending the last few days with the youth here in Balige, and I got to speak to them (through an interpreter) at their conference.

As I shared some encouragement I could see the looks on the girls faces. Even though our cultures are worlds apart, the problems are the same:

Self esteem. Lack of identity. Lies of the enemy.

I could see it on their faces and I could read it in their body language. As I prayed for each girl, the tears were flowing (mainly from me!) and my heart was aching as I just wanted to hug them and tell them they would be okay. That their Heavenly Father loves them more than they could ever know and to just trust him.

Girl after girl wept and I could sense the emptiness that was in their heart from the lies the enemy had been throwing at them.

Different country, same problem!

Oh how I wish I could get across to them how much they are loved and adored.

One girl in particular tore my heart in two. I still don’t know her story or her circumstances, but what I did know is that she was broken and didn’t believe she was worthy of love.

I met her on the first night and prayed for her. I asked her through the translator if I could please giver her a hug, and instantly she clung to me and would not let go. She wept and wept and as I held her I could feel her fear of the future. I could feel the doubt in her mind that she was not worthy and I could see the sadness in her eyes. Oh how my heart broke.

For the longest time I just hugged her back and wept with her. No words were needed.

Lying in bed that night I could not get her off my mind.

The next morning as I was about to speak, God said to me:

“I want you to give her your necklace.”

“Wait, what? The only necklace I brought with me?”

“Yes.”

“The necklace that I am currently wearing.”

“Yes.”

“You mean my favourite necklace?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“Really? But I love this necklace.”

“I know you do.”

“Just to clarify God, you want me to give this girl my favourite necklace.”

“Yes.”

I have learnt that when God speaks as clearly as he did, I need to be obedient, and so I took off my necklace and placed it in my bag until I could get a chance to give it to her.

Later that day, I found her and through the interpreter told her that God had asked me to give her my necklace. I told her that God has big plans for her life and that she needs to start believing in herself. She couldn’t read what the necklaces says the interpreter explained what it meant (she believed she could so she did) and by then all three of us were in tears.

Once again she hugged me so tight, I wondered if she would ever let go. She kept saying thank you (in English) over and over again in between sobs. It was a moment I will never forget.

I saw her a little later with the necklace around her neck and a completely different look on her face. It was like a weight had been lifted and she could start to comprehend Gods love for her. All because of a simple necklace and my small step of obedience!

It never ceases to amaze me what God can do through our small steps of obedience!

And who knows, maybe there will be a #dotk Indonesia one day!