I write quickly this evening just to share a brief prayer request with you.
Saturday afternoon I was not feeling well. The Lord prompted me to head outside to enjoy some time with the girls and Ryan out in the sun. My back was saying, ‘If you move, it is going to hurt.” My heart was saying, “Just get up and go.”
Within 30 seconds of joining my husband and my girls, the Lord showed me that it was indeed His Holy Spirit prompting me.
I was introduced to Melissa, a beautiful young Costa Rican woman. Single mom. 29 years old. 7 year old adorable daughter. 3 year old precious little boy. Eight months pregnant. In a “serious” relationship with the father of her unborn baby, yet no talk of marriage. The father: a 37 yr old American she’d met while he vacationed in CR. Let’s call him “Josh.”
Within moments the conversation turned to spiritual things, and I began sharing with her some of what the Lord had been laying on my heart in regards to my messages for TACTICA’s women’s conference this October. We connected in a unique way, despite that the conversation was only 40 minutes long.
Ryan and I agreed, Okay, so this couple is definitely now on our “Top 10 Most Wanted List”, as we like to call it. You know, those people you see the Lord working in and you watch the person wrestle with what God is revealing of Himself. It is an exciting time when you have the great privilege of accompanying someone on the journey of answering the question that Jesus asked Peter, “but Who do YOU say that I AM?”
Yesterday as I was wrapping up some closing comments for one of the women’s conference sessions, I was interrupted by a knock at my door.
Melissa stood there. You could tell she had not slept. Her eyes were swollen from having spent the night crying. “Josh” had left that morning, returning to the States after his regular monthly visit with his pregnant girlfriend. He announced he wanted his freedom and would not be coming back.
Isolation. Abandonment. Rejection. Fear. Rage. Bitterness.
Her emotions were poured out in my living room as she recounted her past with me. I hate that the indescribable painful stories of wounded women no longer surprise me. I hate that it is almost something I’ve come to expect to hear after meeting a women the Lord brings into my life. I hate it and it makes me so angry.
I ask that you join Ryan and myself in praying for Melissa. I was able to share the entire Gospel with her yesterday and shared that Jesus is my sole source of hope in a world where people, jobs, family, and reputations fail us. The idea of a source of hope caused her to look up and ask me point blank, “But how can I have what you have? That hope? Not just believing in Him but actually believing Him?”
She spent over an hour with me again today as her tears spilled over my dining room table. In between moments of rejoicing over kicks in her womb from her unborn baby, I was able to open God’s Word with her and show her directly from the Source what the difference is between knowing about God and KNOWING God.
She promised to come by again. She lives only 7 houses down from us. She left saying, “I don’t want to be a bother to you and Ryan- like some needy lady- but I need you to show me the way to Jesus.”
My heart is heavy and excited, all at the same time. I have offered her support in the next weeks as she awaits the birth of her daughter as a single mom. Furthermore, I have offered her the Truth and am praying that it will be what she allows to set her free.
I thank you in advance for your prayers. I do believe that the angels will soon be rejoicing over this one sinner that repents.
By His grace alone,
Gretchen Rought
