Oceans Rise..

One of the boys I have had the privilege of caring for here at Boys and Girls Country opened up a bit the other day and revealed to me some about his past. He was born here in the states but after his parents divorced he went back to Mexico to live with his mom and younger brother. Life there during that time was very hard for him. He told me about how his mother became an alcoholic after the divorce and because of this she was very abusive. He spent more and more time away from home as he got older and eventually fell prey to violence, and gangs in the street. He was so depressed at one point he told me he went down to the ocean where they would go to surf and he just walked out into the waves until they were up over his head and his feet no longer touched anything beneath him. He said he was a strong swimmer but the current took him under and he did not fight it. As he went out deeper and deeper he said he felt a strange sense of calm. He didn’t want to have to fight to live anymore he said, and as the oxygen began to run out in his lungs and the light above him grew dimmer, the cold dark ocean surrounding him more and more, he said he found himself in a kind of serenity of letting go. All of the sudden he said he felt a jolt. Like a light that hit him. A surge of energy in his otherwise limp body and without him consciously telling it to do so his body began to kick back against the current. He instantly realized it was the Lord. It was not his time to die, he told me, and God had made that clear to him in that moment. He made it back to shore and made it his mission in life to get he and his brother back to the states, away from the abuse and into better schools and a better home life. He accomplished this and in a few months they were living with their father here in Houston but life was not much better. His father was poor and the schools were not good where they lived. That’s when they found Boys and Girls Country and as he puts it his whole life changed for the better. Now he has a purpose, a reason to live and goals of going to college and becoming an engineer.  

I was reminded of him and this story he told me yesterday while I was at church. We sang one of my new favorite songs that has hit a cord deep within me in these last few months of turbulence for our family. 

It’s called “Oceans” and it’s by Hillsong. The lyrics say, 

“You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep

My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand

Will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

Oh, Jesus, you're my God!

I will call upon Your name

Keep my eyes above the waves

My soul will rest in Your embrace

I am Yours and You are mine” 

Yesterday while singing this I was overcome with emotion. This life here at Boys and Girls Country can be hard. We truly are missionaries who serve kids from all over the planet in one Home. 

It can sometimes, if not often times, feel like we are barely keeping our eyes above the waves as Satan fires at us from every direction. He hates the work we do here because it has lasting effects on generations of people from all across the globe in homes where he has had a foothold for decades. If we are able to do the work of the Lord despite Satan’s best efforts, we end generations of abuse, neglect, addiction, poverty, oppression and most importantly of spiritual darkness in multiple families across the globe. 

Please pray for us, for our family, our friends Amy and Tommy Smith who have newly joined us here, our  friends Matt and Laura Mears at C&C, for all of the teaching parents at Boys and Girls Country. God is on the brink of doing great and mighty things here. I know it because Satan is attacking harder than I’ve seen him attack since I’ve been here. Pray for us to keep our eyes above the waves, to call upon the name of the one who saves, and to remember why we are here. For ones like the young man who shared with me about the day God called him out of the waters. 

Yesterday at church the pastor talked about baptism, he said that each of us is called to serve, but first we are called to go beneath the waters. 

Pray for us as Oceans rise here at BGC. Pray for us to keep our eyes above the waves. Pray for our faith to be made stronger as we trust in God to do his good work through us going into this season of celebration where hearts are already being won for him.