We Have Overcome

"We will overcome, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony"  Jeremy Camp - OVERCOME

Two years ago Shalayce moved to a small town near Grand Rapids with her mother and two younger sisters.  It had not been the best of circumstances for them.  Shalayce's father was addicted to drugs and had started beating her mother, slamming her into a wall one time.  Eventually the mom, a Christian, decided it would be best to create some space between them and leave their little town, situated next to the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, about two hours from Marquette.  Soon after the father moved in with a drug using woman and informed the mother that she should be glad that he finally was happy.

Once situated the family started going to a little Baptist church and the girls were enrolled in school, something the father had not allowed.  The two younger sisters could not read or write but their school provided special workers to help them along.  Shalayce who was 16 tested out at the 6th grade level but was determined as well to work hard to catch up.

Their little Baptist church was going through some struggles and the mom decided to try another small Baptist church.  A missionary whose call was to the Eskimos in Alaska was talking at their first service there.  He ran a summer camp and Shalayce signed up to help.  That summer two wonderful things happened.  First, she was able to work through her feelings about her father so that she could truly forgive him.  And second, she fell in love with Alaska and the Eskimo people.

One time a young Eskimo girl shared with Shalayce part of a lunch that her mother had sent along - whale blubber and blueberries!  It was very sweet but still hard for Shalayce to enjoy because of the slimy texture.

I met Shalayce today when she came to take her driver's road test.  She was 18 and a junior in High School and very excited to leave the day after school gets out for another summer working at that camp in Alaska.  She had a very interesting plan for her life.  After graduation she would be going to the University of Alaska for study to become a Nurse Practitioner so she could do medical work with the Eskimos.  Because they are very suspicious of Western medicine she also wanted to be trained in massage therapy, something the Eskimos accepted.  She was also going to take a years study at another college in Alaska to learn some about  traditional native medicine.  I did tell her that with her being a Baptist it would be difficult for to believe me but it seemed that the only thing she was missing was the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  Then she would have all her healing bases covered.  Perhaps I planted a seed.

The wonderful thing about this story is that God could take an awful situation and turn it around so that many people will be blessed by the Father's love.  Shalayce knows that He put her in that church at that time for her benefit and the benefit of others.

Sometimes we get discouraged by the ever increasing decay in society.  Darkness increases and calls itself light, and the world which is use to so many shades of grey does not object.  But we will proclaim that there is a light that pierces the darkness and that Jesus is that light.