written by Paula Hemphill I had the greatest honor of traveling to Bangladesh with Holly Renee Metzger this year. But even better than traveling with her, I got to room with her for the week we were in country. I grew to absolutely adore this stranger as if she were my very own family. I came to love her girls & her Dan as if I already knew them-- from the overhead facetime dates they had each morning and evening. And when I was down and out, she took care of me as if I were her own girls-- even though we're the same age. If I had to describe Holly in just word I would fumble and stumble and then proclaim INCREDIBLE. Webster defines incredible as amazing & extraordinary. I would use those exact words to describe Holly. And it's my honor to steward her story today. A little less than a year ago my friend, Holly Renee Metzger, drove from her home in Cincinnati, Ohio to Nashville, Tennessee for our annual child ambassador conference. "I was on a secret mission to see if God still had this ministry for me... because I thought it might be time to be done."
Holly came to conference not knowing very many of her fellow attendees and listening intently for the Lord to speak to her. "I had been a CA for a long time, but I didn't actually know anyone. I wasn't sure if I truly belonged. But when I arrived, I felt immediately loved and welcomed into the CA family." Throughout the course of the weekend Holly continued to listen for the Lord and He continued to meet her exactly where she was. He met her in the unknown. He met her in her loneliness. He met her in her questioning. She listened to speaker after speaker share how God used them in their ministries and she was so comforted to know there wasn't a box that every CA had to fit into. Every CA had a different personality-- and so did their work for World Vision. During the final worship session, each CA was asked to kneel at the foot of the cross and lay their ministries and prayers there. "I sat at the foot of that cross and just bawled. I knew the Lord had more in store for me and that this World Vision family was a part of it." Then the celebration dinner began and we celebrated all that God had done through our team's effort in the past year. But we weren't done celebrating. Instead we began to celebrate our lifetimes as CA's. Holly was one of the #Bangladesh12 called onto the stage and invited on an adventure she never imagined would ever happen. "I didn't understand why this was happening to me. I hadn't even met Megan until that morning, but here she was inviting me to go to Bangladesh. She saw my ministry. She saw my worth. She spoke into it. And for me, it wasn't Megan's voice I was hearing. It was God's voice choosing me again to be a part of this ministry." "I couldn't sleep that night, so I packed up the car and drove home. I prayed all through the night. And during that drive God spoke to me. He gave my ministry a new call." Holly began a campaign she called #GiftYourYes. She said that if 26 people would sponsor children she would run 26 miles-- a full marathon-- for those children. That campaign began in November. By January-- with lots of hard work and sharing-- the 26th child was sponsored. I asked Holly if at any point she hoped only 25 children would be sponsored, "100% Yes! Because I have run half marathons before and when I finish I know I don't feel up to doing it all over again. But I knew that only God could bring me 26 sponsors, and if God could bring me 26 sponsors, He could bring me 26 miles." Holly ran that marathon earlier this month, and it wasn't easy. "I can tell you the exact moment that I wondered if God had taken me out to the desert to die. Mile 18. I actually asked Him out loud, 'have you taken me out here to die?'" And then she remembered her family, and the 26 children who were sponsored, and the people we met in Bangladesh. And she knew she couldn't do it, but God could. Holly crossed the finish line, but she's not done with this work that God has put in her heart. "God has found sponsors for 38 children through me this year. He is still working through me. I came to conference wondering if there was room for me on this team, and He's shown me that not only is there room, but this is where I belong." Comments are closed.
|
AuthorsGreater Together is a collaborative blog written by volunteer Child Ambassadors for World Vision. Categories
All
Archives
November 2020
|